Roy Lichtenstein — Composition IV, 1995
Roy Lichtenstein (American, 1923–1997)
Composition IV, 1995
Screenprint in five colors on BFK Rives paper
Image: 13 1/8 × 19 5/16 in. (33.3 × 49.1 cm)
Sheet: 22 1/4 × 27 3/8 in. (56.5 × 69.6 cm)
Signed and dated ’95 in pencil, lower right
Numbered from the edition of 120
Published by the artist and Kennedy for Senate
Printed by Brand X Editions, New York
Brand X blindstamp lower right
Catalogue Raisonné: RLCR 4371; Corlett 293; RL 3337
Price: on request
About the Work
Created near the end of Roy Lichtenstein’s career, Composition IV brilliantly transforms the familiar language of musical notation into Pop abstraction. Sweeping staff lines, notes, primary colors, and geometric forms create a composition that seems to possess its own tempo—an image that can almost be “read” like a musical score.
The work was executed in five colors—white, yellow, red, blue, and black—in five separate runs from screens created using hand-cut stencils. Its crisp graphic precision is balanced by an unusually lyrical sense of movement, making Composition IV particularly appealing to collectors with interests spanning Pop Art, abstraction, and music.
The print also has a fascinating history. It was created as a benefit to help retire the debt from Senator Edward Kennedy’s 1994 senatorial campaign and was published jointly by Lichtenstein and Kennedy for Senate. It relates thematically to Lichtenstein’s Composition I, II, and III, which were being developed at approximately the same time.
Composition IV has subsequently been included in exhibitions devoted to Lichtenstein at Kantor Gallery, Los Angeles (1996); Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York (2014); Museo delle Culture (MUDEC), Milan (2019); and Musée des Beaux-Arts, Mons (2020–21).
A wonderfully energetic late work by one of the defining figures of American Pop Art—and a particularly compelling Lichtenstein for a collector with a passion for music.
