Last Sunday, I went a little north to the Katonah Art Museum to see the exhibition “Lichtenstein in Process.” (That's the cover for the catalog, left.) I’ve never been a fan of Lichtenstein (hereafter “RL”), but the KAM always has something a little off-beat and interesting so I trust that if they’re presenting something, it’s more than worth 45 minutes of driving and the modest admission. And, well, “wow” is about all I have to say.

True to the title, the exhibition features the process the artist used to create his paintings. There are sequences of sketch-drawing-collage for paintings (and one finished painting) and some of the pieces have clippings of the source material as well. The walls have interesting quotations from RL – one that particularly struck me is: “All abstract artists try to tell you that what they do comes from nature, and I’m always trying to tell you that what I do is completely abstract.”

It’s an interesting insight into the mechanics of his work, and into the thought process of a very thoughtful artist. I don't know much about art -- and oftentimes don't know what I like, especially with contemporary art -- but the more I look into the 20th-century folks, the more I understand that it really does help to know what they were thinking about and what they were after in the work. RL's Benday dots, for example, "refer" to chiaroscuro without being chiaroscuro, they're kind of a painting of chiaroscuro rather than a use of it in support of another element in the image. And the minimalist in me is very intrigued with how stripped-down the images are.

If you’re in the neighborhood, go. The show is up until June 28. If you’re not in the neighborhood, the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation web site has posted an interesting interview with RL by Michael Kimmelman, excerpted from his book, PORTRAITS, Talking with Artists at the Met, The Modern, The Louvre and Elsewhere.