House I

model 1996, fabricated 1998

Roy Lichtenstein

Artist, American, 1923 - 1997

This free-standing sculpture is made up of panels and geometric shapes of vivid yellow, crimson red, white, and slate gray, all outlined with bold, jet-black lines, to create a simplified, cartoon-like, single-story house. The sculpture sits slightly off the ground on four metal feet, and is displayed on a grassy lawn with an iron fence and trees in the background. One short end of the house faces us, to our left. The peaked wall is white and is pierced with a window divided into six empty panes, two across and three down, and flanked by red shutters. Above the window is a tall, rectangular air vent with six horizontal slats. Below the window a loose grid of three horizontal lines and four short, vertical lines suggest an abstracted brick pattern. The long side of the house moves away from us to our right. It has a red chimney at the center of the gray roof. The wall of the front of the house is canary yellow. There is a white door at the middle and two more six-paned windows with red shutters to each side. Two shallow white steps leading down from the door are suggested by staggered, narrow rectangles. A dove-gray band runs along the bottom of both walls. All of the features, including the windows, shutters, door, chimney, roof, and gray band are outlined in black.
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Roy Lichtenstein may be best known for his 1960s pop art paintings based on advertisements and comic strips, yet he also produced a significant body of sculpture, including large-scale works designed for the outdoors. House I incorporates the hallmarks of the artist's style: crisp, elemental forms, heavy black outlines, and a palette based on primary colors. Whereas most of the artist's sculpture approximates freestanding paintings in relief rather than volumetric structures in the round, some of his late sculpture, such as House I, exploits the illusionistic effects of a third dimension. The side of the house at once projects toward the viewer while appearing to recede into space.
Sculpture Garden, Southwest Quadrant
On View

Sculpture Garden, Southwest Quadrant


Artwork overview


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Fabricated for NGA through the estate of the artist; purchased 25 June 1998 by NGA.

Associated Names

Bibliography

2013

  • Cigola, Francesca. Art Parks: A Tour of America’s Sculpture Parks and Gardens. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2013: 101.

Inscriptions

along left side: r f Lichtenstein 1998 AP ESTATE OF ROY LICHTENSTEIN TALLIX

Wikidata ID

Q63862061


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