The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Print

The Solomon Guggenheim Museum Poster is centred on a circular composition in vivid primary colours. This image was created for Lichtenstein’s first solo exhibition held at The Guggenheim Museum in New York. The work was later reproduced as an advertising poster, after which it also appeared on the cover of ARTnews magazine.

Working with flattened fields of pigment and densely dotted areas evocative of tone and texture, the print implements Lichtenstein’s trademark comic book style to perfection. Much like Guggenheim’s main architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, Lichtenstein in this work ascribes symbolic meaning to his shapes. Mirroring the enveloping spiral design of the museum, the composition shows continuous shapes flowing freely into one another. While the circles point to perpetuity, the triangles reference unity, and the squares represent integrity.

The artist incorporates many different motifs into this emblematic work, ranging from a Roman column to a modern bridge, a plant, and a horse’s head. Embracing forms from nature, the design also expresses Lichtenstein’s take on the rigid geometry of architecture and the abstracted tendencies of contemporary art. The bold hues of red, yellow, green, and black function in this work as complementary but also as contrastive.