I've been a big fan of Roy Lichtenstein's Pop Art since late high school, and I especially like some of his pieces that conceptually, and often humorously, examine mechanical reproduction. A signature element of Lichtenstein's art is conspicuous halftone dots. Halftone dots are a very commonly used way of creating a sense of grey tones when printing only with black ink by varying the density of the dots. Warhol used halftones in his screen prints, but in a less stylized and exaggerated way than Lichtenstein's approach, placing them front and center as a stylistic signature of his art. When I'd been making my Andre stickers for five years back in 1994, I decided to do a series of Pop Art tributes to celebrate the five-year anniversary. One of them was an homage to Lichtenstein's "Magnifying Glass." I only did the original version as a limited run of 60 t-shirts which explains the "Oil silkscreen on cotton. Private collection" museum label style text below the image. I recently decided that a new iteration with a different composition and using the icon face would be nice as a letterpress. Check out the last images in the carousel to see some of the history of the image.
-Shepard
Obey Magnifying Glass (Two Colorways: Red and Cream). A limited number of matching numbered sets will be available for $140. Red and Cream sold separately for $70. 10 x 13 inches. Letterpress on cream cotton paper with hand-deckled edges. Signed by Shepard Fairey. Numbered edition of 350. Obey publishing chop in lower left corner.
More