Roy Lichtenstein: Monet’s Garden Goes Pop!
Conceptual rendering for a horticultural vignette of Lichtenstein’s take on Monet’s Japanese Bridge and Water Lilies at Selby Gardens’ Koi Pond
From February 13 through June 27, Selby Gardens’ Downtown Sarasota campus will showcase Pop Art icon Roy Lichtenstein’s take on Monet’s garden.
Roy Lichtenstein made his name by applying his Pop Art interpretation to cultural icons like Mickey Mouse and images from American advertising. Yet, he was also fascinated by landscapes and the popular art form of Impressionism. Starting in the 1960s, he paid homage to—and radically reimagined—Monet’s Impressionist works.
Laurie Lambrecht, photograph of Roy working on a collage for his Water Lilies with Japanese Bridge, 1992, in his Southampton studio. Photograph, 1992.
Image: © Laurie Lambrecht, 1992
Roy Lichtenstein: Monet’s Garden Goes Pop! will showcase the legendary Pop artist’s take on several staples of the public imagination: Claude Monet’s paintings of his garden and of his surroundings at Giverny. The display of these large-scale, rarely seen artworks will be accompanied by a complete transformation of the Downtown Sarasota campus’s 15 acres into Monet’s garden at Giverny, as imagined through the aesthetic of Lichtenstein.
“It will be like stepping into Lichtenstein’s world—if he had created a world based on Monet,” says Jennifer Rominiecki, president and CEO of Selby Gardens. “Our horticultural team is taking the principles that Lichtenstein applied to his artwork and applying those to our interpretation of Monet’s garden at Giverny. This innovative, immersive interpretation has never been done before.”
Conceptual rendering for a horticultural vignette of Lichtenstein’s take on Monet’s arbors at Selby Gardens’ bayfront
Familiar components of Monet’s garden at Giverny will appear at Selby Gardens, but with a new spin. The iconic Japanese Bridge will span Selby Gardens’ koi pond, but it will look as if Lichtenstein painted it. A mix of 2-D and 3-D elements will playfully reimagine Monet’s home or his much-painted water lilies. These surprising intersections between Impressionism and Pop Art will engage visitors as they move through the gardens en route to the Museum of Botany & the Arts.
Roy Lichtenstein. Water Lilies with Willows, 1992. Screen print enamel on stainless steel, 58 x 104 in. Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami, gift from the Collection of Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer.
Image: © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein. Water Lilies with Clouds, 1992. Screen print enamel on stainless steel, 65.41 x 44.76 in. Norton Museum of Art.
Image: © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein
Within the Museum, viewers will be able to admire Lichtenstein’s Water Lilies with Reflections series, a limited edition of large-screen prints created in the latter years of his career that reinterprets the extreme painterly sensibilities of Monet’s famous Water Lilies. Printed on metal, Lichtenstein’s Water Lilies series uses flat areas of color, Ben-Day dots, and the reflective qualities of the material to imply motion and the movement of light. Earlier works from Lichtenstein’s Haystacks series and archival photographs of Lichtenstein at work and at home will also be on view.
Roy Lichtenstein, Haystacks (yellow), 1969. Screen print on Fabiano wove, 21 x 27 in. Private Collection, New York.
Image: © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein
Admission to Roy Lichtenstein: Monet’s Garden Goes Pop! is included with all-access admission to Selby Gardens’ Downtown Sarasota campus: $25 adults, $15 children ages 4–17, and free for members.
