On, from the International Anthology of Contemporary Engraving, vol. 5, The International Avant-Garde: America Discovered

Roy Lichtensteins On from the International Anthology of Contemporary Engraving, volume 5, The International Avant-Garde: America Discovered from 1962, published in 1964, is an etching in black on ivory wove paper that represents an early phase in the development of Pop Art, when Lichtenstein was first translating the visual language of comic strips and commercial printing into the vocabulary of fine art. The word On, rendered in the bold lettering and Ben-Day dots that would become Lichtensteins signature style, isolates a single word from its narrative context and presents it as a visual object, a strategy that exemplifies the Pop Art approach of taking elements of commercial culture and presenting them as art. The International Anthology of Contemporary Engraving, published by Tanglewood Press, was a series of portfolios that presented original prints by contemporary artists in a format that made them accessible to a wider audience, and Lichtensteins contribution to the fifth volume demonstrates the seriousness with which the Pop artist approached the print medium from the very beginning of his career. The etching medium, with its capacity for precise line and even tone, allows Lichtenstein to create the clean, mechanical appearance of commercial printing while acknowledging the hand-printed tradition of fine art, creating a productive tension between the mechanical and the manual that is central to Pop Art. The year 1962 places this etching in the earliest phase of Lichtensteins Pop period, when he was first developing the style that would make him one of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century.

Lichtensteins early prints are important documents for understanding the development of Pop Art, and On demonstrates the strategy of isolating elements of commercial culture and presenting them as art. The etching influenced the development of Pop printmaking and the broader tradition of art that engages with commercial imagery.

A 1962 etching by Lichtenstein from the International Anthology of Contemporary Engraving depicting the word On in bold lettering, isolating a single word from commercial culture and presenting it as a visual object in the earliest phase of Pop Art that would define his career.