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Donald Judd
The funny papers have again caused outrage among the respectable; this time it is not morals but art that is being corrupted. The premises of the status quo, which is multiple, being moribund at stages dating from recently back to the nineteenth century, have been ignored. Respectability comes quickly, is strong and can be shrewd. Lichtenstein's comics and advertisements destroy the necessity to which the usual definitions pretend. In part this social benefaction is aside from the gist of tile work. Other than that aggravation there are few reasons for using comics. There may be reasons as to the social meaning of comics and the aesthetic meaning of enlarging them, but these would be minor. It is not so unusual to appreciate the directness of comics; they look like Léger, as do these versions of them. The commercial technique - non-art - is part of the jolt, but the schematic modeling, the black lines and the half-tones of Ben Day dots resemble Léger's localized modeling and black lines around flat colors. Lichtenstein is hardly as good as Léger, but is fairly good and has something on his own. He has added slightly to the ways of being open and raw. Ironically, the composition is expert, and some of it is quite traditional, as in one large panel of a pilot kissing his girl. The two heads, taking up most of the room, are undercut from the right by the ultramarine blue of the runway and the black shadows of the girl's blond hair. The coil of hair, spiral facing outward, concludes the sweep and provides a short, massive, central vertical at the lower edge. The pilot's red-dotted hand, clutching the girl's hair, repeats the vertical in the black. Her hands and his shoulder weave up the left edge. There are other panels and single figures from comics, and details, often single objects, from advertisements. The most unusual range of color is the red-black one, which is somewhat shrill. Perhaps a cadmium red medium is used. The distinctions are definite between red dots within a black line, the canvas or black dots within a black line and areas of red or black. (Castelli, Feb. 10-Mar. 3.)
Arts, April 1962: 52-53; © 1997 Donald Judd Estate/ Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
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