Hopeless by Roy Lichtenstein

The feeling of love and melancholy find a particular echo in the illustrations of mass consumer culture of the sixties. The illustrious master of American pop art Roy Lichtenstein reinterprets this deep despair in “Hopeless”, an intimate portrait full of sensitivity. By this thematic choice, the artist highlights the striking discrepancy between the standardized nature of press drawing and the authenticity of human emotions.

A young blonde woman, her face marked by grief, is lying down and rests her head on a light blue pillow. Her tearful blue eyes stare into space with infinite sadness while a tear flows slowly down her cheek pinked by Ben-Day dots. Above her head, a white thought bubble contains text expressing her distress face to an issue-less situation. Her long golden yellow hair spreads in a sinuous way around her thin face. Her hands are partially visible in the foreground, accentuating her posture of retreating into herself. The light is soft, highlighting with subtlety the delicate outlines of her tormented physiology.

The artist’s manual craftsmanship is revealed in the subtle contrast between the rigor of the black line and the delicacy of the pastel shades used. The impeccable rendering of the yellow hair and the Benday grid demonstrates his mastery of the screen-printing technique. This moving composition celebrates his inimitable creative genius.