View source for Drowning Girl

{{short description|Painting by Roy Lichtenstein}}
{{for|the unrelated novel|The Drowning Girl}}
{{featured article}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2016}}
{{Infobox artwork
| image_file        = Roy Lichtenstein Drowning Girl.jpg
| backcolor         =
| painting_alignment=
| image_size        = 300px
| title             = Drowning Girl
| artist            = [[Roy Lichtenstein]]
| year              = 1963
| medium              = oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas
| accession         = 685.1971
| catalogue         = [https://www.moma.org/collection/works/80249 80249]
| height_metric     = 171.6
| width_metric      = 169.5
| height_imperial   = {{frac|67|5|8}}
| width_imperial    = {{frac|66|3|4}}
| metric_unit       = cm
| imperial_unit     = in
| city              = New York City
| museum            = [[Museum of Modern Art]]
}}
'''''Drowning Girl''''' (also known as '''''Secret Hearts''''' or '''''I Don't Care! I'd Rather Sink''''') is a 1963 American painting in oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas by [[Roy Lichtenstein]], based on original art by [[Tony Abruzzo]]. The painting is considered among Lichtenstein's most significant works, perhaps on a par with his acclaimed 1963 diptych ''[[Whaam!]]''. One of the most representative paintings of the [[pop art]] movement, ''Drowning Girl'' was acquired by the [[Museum of Modern Art]] in 1971.

The painting has been described as a "masterpiece of [[melodrama]]", and is one of the artist's earliest images depicting women in tragic situations, a theme to which he often returned in the mid-1960s. It shows a teary-eyed woman on a turbulent sea. She is emotionally distressed, seemingly from a romance. Using the conventions of [[comic book]] art, a [[Speech balloon|thought bubble]] reads: "I Don't Care! I'd Rather Sink&nbsp;— Than Call Brad For Help!" This narrative element highlights the clichéd melodrama, while its graphics — including [[Ben-Day dots]] that echo the effect of the printing process — reiterate Lichtenstein's theme of [[painterly]] work that imitates mechanized reproduction. The work is derived from a 1962 [[DC Comics]] panel; both the graphical and narrative elements of the work are cropped from the source image. It also borrows from [[Hokusai]]'s ''[[The Great Wave off Kanagawa]]'' and from elements of modernist artists [[Jean Arp]] and [[Joan Miró]]. It is one of several Lichtenstein works that mention a character named Brad who is absent from the picture.

==Background==

During the late 1950s and early 1960s a number of American painters began to adapt the imagery and motifs of comic strips.<ref>{{cite web|title=Modern Art Movements|url=http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/modern-art-movements.htm|publisher=ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ART|access-date=July 16, 2013}}</ref> [[Roy Lichtenstein]] made drawings of comic strip characters in 1958. [[Andy Warhol]] produced his earliest paintings in the style in 1960. Lichtenstein, unaware of Warhol's work, produced ''[[Look Mickey]]'' and ''Popeye'' in 1961.<ref name=L72>{{cite book|title=Pop Art: A Continuing History| last =Livingstone | first = Marco | publisher =[[Thames and Hudson]]|isbn=0-500-28240-4|year=2000|pages=72–73}}</ref> Although Warhol had produced silkscreens of [[comic strips]] and of other [[pop art]] subjects, he supposedly relegated himself to ''[[Campbell's Soup Cans]]'' as a subject at the time to avoid competing with the more finished style of comics by Lichtenstein.<ref name="W109">{{cite book|author=Bourdon, David|title=Warhol|publisher=[[Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishing]]|year=1989|isbn=0-8109-1761-0|page=109}}</ref> He once said "I've got to do something that really will have a lot of impact that will be different enough from Lichtenstein and [[James Rosenquist]], that will be very personal, that won't look like I'm doing exactly what they're doing."<ref name="Wat79">{{cite book|author1-link=Steven Watson (author)|author=Watson, Steven|title=Factory Made: Warhol and the Sixties|url=https://archive.org/details/factorymadewarho00wats|url-access=limited|publisher=Pantheon Books|isbn= 0-679-42372-9|year=2003|page=[https://archive.org/details/factorymadewarho00wats/page/79 79]}}</ref>

[[File:Roy Lichtenstein.jpg|thumb|left|alt=A black-and-white portrait photograph of a man at bust length facing and looking at the viewer while wearing a turtleneck shirt under a blazer all in front of a painting|In 1961, [[Roy Lichtenstein]]'s cartoon work advanced from animated cartoons to more serious themes such as romance and wartime armed forces.]]

''Drowning Girl'' depicted the advancement of Lichtenstein's cartoon work, which represented his 1961 departure from his [[abstract expressionism]] period, from animated cartoons to more serious themes such as romance and wartime armed forces.<ref name=RLMoMA>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=LG8xJ-LRHJkC&q=%22Drowning+Girl%22+Lichtenstein&pg=PA11 |title=Roy Lichtenstein| last =Lanchner | first = Carolyn | publisher =[[Museum of Modern Art]]|year=2009|isbn=978-0-87070-770-4|pages=11–14}}</ref> Lichtenstein said that, at the time, "I was very excited about, and very interested in, the highly emotional content yet detached impersonal handling of love, hate, war, etc., in these cartoon images."<ref name = RLMoMA /> Lichtenstein parodied four Picassos between 1962 and 1963.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.christies.com/about/press-center/releases/pressrelease.aspx?pressreleaseid=6290|type=Release|title=Roy Lichtenstein's Woman with Flowered Hat: A Pop Art Masterpiece|access-date=June 7, 2013|date=April 10, 2013|publisher=[[Christie's]]|archive-date=November 11, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131111062027/http://www.christies.com/about/press-center/releases/pressrelease.aspx?pressreleaseid=6290|url-status=dead}}</ref> Picasso's depictions of weeping women may have influenced Lichtenstein to produce portrayals of vulnerable teary-eyed women, such as the subjects of ''[[Hopeless (Roy Lichtenstein)|Hopeless]]'' and ''Drowning Girl''.<ref>{{cite book|title=Roy Lichtenstein: Classic of the New|editor=Schneider, Eckhard|publisher=[[Kunsthaus Bregenz]]|year=2005|isbn= 3-88375-965-1 | page =142}}</ref> Another possible influence on his emphasis on depicting distressed women in the early- to mid-1960s was that his first marriage was dissolving at the time.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lichtensteinfoundation.org/kimmelman1.htm |title=Roy Lichtenstein at the Met |access-date=June 10, 2013 |publisher=Lichtenstein Foundation |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130627145324/http://www.lichtensteinfoundation.org/kimmelman1.htm |archive-date=June 27, 2013 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> Lichtenstein's first marriage to Isabel Wilson, which resulted in two sons, lasted from 1949 to 1965; the couple separated in 1963.<ref name=PApRLda7/><ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Q93FYrc_m80C&pg=PA29|title=Pop Artists (Artist in Profile Series) |access-date=June 17, 2013|year=2002|isbn=1-58810-646-2|page=29| last =Mason | first = Paul|publisher=[[Heinemann Library]]}}</ref>

When Lichtenstein made his transition to comic-based work, he began to mimic the style while adapting the subject matter. He applied simplified color schemes and commercial printing-like techniques. The style he adopted was "simple, well-framed images {{sic|comprised |hide=y|of}} solid fields of bold color often bounded by thick, stark border lines."<ref name=TLoC:WaP>{{cite book|last=Taylor|first=Todd|title=The Language of Comics: Word and Image |year=2001|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|isbn=1-57806-414-7|page=42|editor1-last =Varnum | editor1-first = Robin | editor2-last = Gibbons | editor2-first = Christina T.|chapter=Coyotes and Visual Ethos}}</ref> The borrowed technique was "representing tonal variations with patterns of colored circles that imitated the half-tone screens of Ben-Day dots used in newspaper printing".<ref name=TGEoAA>{{cite book|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=sPGdBxzaWj0C&pg=RA2-PA158 |title=The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art| access-date= June 15, 2013| year =2011|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=978-0-19-533579-8|page=158| editor-last =Marter | editor-first = Joan}}</ref> [[PBS]] asserts that this is an adaptation of the [[ligne claire]] style associated with [[Hergé]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/pov/tintinandi/special_tintinamerica.php#.UcDzjtjxGF9|title=Essay: Tintin in America|access-date=June 19, 2013|publisher=[[PBS]]|author=Bengal, Rebecca|archive-date=October 2, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002174314/http://www.pbs.org/pov/tintinandi/special_tintinamerica.php#.UcDzjtjxGF9|url-status=dead}}</ref> Lichtenstein once said of his technique: "I take a cliche and try to organize its forms to make it monumental."<ref name=PApRLda7>{{cite web|url = https://apnews.com/43b85ac8a5a6ab361d2adb164e6a10ce |title=Pop Art pioneer Roy Lichtenstein dead at 73|access-date=June 10, 2013|date=September 29, 1997|work=[[Associated Press News]]| last =Monroe | first = Robert}}</ref>

The subject of ''Drowning Girl'' is an example of Lichtenstein's post-1963 comics-based women who "look hard, crisp, brittle, and uniformly modish in appearance, as if they all came out of the same pot of makeup."{{Sfn | Coplans | 1972 | p = 23}}  In the early 1960s, Lichtenstein produced several "fantasy drama" paintings of women in love affairs with domineering men causing women to be miserable, such as ''Drowning Girl'', ''Hopeless'' and ''[[In the Car]]''.  These works served as prelude to 1964 paintings of innocent "girls next door" in a variety of tenuous emotional states.<ref name=W113/> "In ''Hopeless'' and ''Drowning Girl'', for example, the heroines appear as victims of unhappy love affairs, with one displaying helplessness&nbsp;... and the other defiance (she would rather drown than ask for her lover's help)."<ref name=W113/> ''Drowning Girl'', the aforementioned works and ''[[Oh, Jeff...I Love You, Too...But...]]'' are among those tragedies that make the author a popular draw at museums.<ref name=RLARatNGoAWD>{{cite web|url=http://gaithersburg.patch.com/blog_posts/roy-lichtenstein-a-retrospective-at-the-national-gallery-of-art-washington-dc|title=Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC|access-date=June 5, 2013|date=December 11, 2012|work=[[Gaithersburg Patch]]|last=Borchert|first=Vian Shamounki|archive-date=May 6, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130506080828/http://gaithersburg.patch.com/blog_posts/roy-lichtenstein-a-retrospective-at-the-national-gallery-of-art-washington-dc|url-status=dead}}</ref>
{{clear}}

==History==
[[File:Drowning Girl source.jpg|thumb|right|[[Tony Abruzzo]]'s splash page from "Run for Love!" in ''[[Secret Hearts]]'' no. 83 (November 1962) was the source for ''Drowning Girl''.]]
''Drowning Girl'' is derived from the [[splash page (comics)|splash page]] from "Run for Love!", illustrated by [[Tony Abruzzo]] and lettered by [[Ira Schnapp]], in ''Secret Hearts'' #83 (November 1962), [[DC Comics]].<ref>{{cite comic| artist=Tony Abruzzo|letterer=Ira Schnapp|story=Run for Love!|title=Secret Hearts | issue=83 | publisher =DC Comics|date=November 1963|page=1}}</ref>{{Sfn | Waldman | 1993 | pp = 118–19}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Arntson|first=Amy E.|title = Graphic Design Basics |year=2006|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=0-495-00693-9|page= 165}}</ref> This is the same comic book issue that inspired ''Hopeless''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://image-duplicator.com/sat/sat_source_details.php?source_id=21212|title=Secret Hearts #83 (a)|access-date=June 11, 2013|publisher=Lichtenstein Foundation|archive-date=February 25, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140225215230/http://image-duplicator.com/sat/sat_source_details.php?source_id=21212|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1963, Lichtenstein was parodying various types of sources such as commercial illustrations, comic imagery and even modern masterpieces. The masterpieces represented what could have been dubbed the "canon" of art and was thought of as "high art," while the "low-art" subject matter included comic strip images. His masterworks sources included the likes of [[Paul Cézanne|Cézanne]], [[Piet Mondrian|Mondrian]] and [[Pablo Picasso|Picasso]]. During this time in his career, Lichtenstein noted that "the things that I have apparently parodied I actually admire."<ref name= CtoaPAm>{{cite web | url =http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=61860#.UbHwPtjxGF8|title=Christie's to offer a Pop Art masterpiece: Roy Lichtenstein's Woman with Flowered Hat|access-date=June 7, 2013|work=ArtDaily}}</ref> At the time, Lichtenstein was exploring the theme of "industrialization of emotion". In Lichtenstein's obituary, ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' critic [[Christopher Knight (art critic)|Christopher Knight]] said the work was "a witty rejoinder to [[Willem de Kooning|De Kooning]]'s famously brushy paintings of women".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://articles.latimes.com/1997/sep/30/news/mn-37730/2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131024214753/http://articles.latimes.com/1997/sep/30/news/mn-37730/2 |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 24, 2013 |title=Pop Art Icon Lichtenstein Dies |access-date=June 23, 2013 |date=September 30, 1997 |newspaper=The [[Los Angeles Times]] |last=Knight |first=Christopher}}</ref> His comic romances often depicted stereotypical representations of thwarted passions.<ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=J1t8g_yX1wcC&pg=PA289 | title = Of Comics and Men: A Cultural History of American Comic Books|access-date=June 7, 2013|publisher=University Press of Mississippi |isbn = 978-1-60473-267-2 | year =2009|page=289| last =Gabilliet | first = Jean-Paul}}</ref> Although the Lichtenstein Foundation website claims that Lichtenstein did not begin using his [[opaque projector]] technique until the fall of 1963,<ref name=C/> Lichtenstein described his process for producing comics based art, including ''Drowning Girl'':
{{Quote |text=As directly as possible&nbsp;... From a cartoon, photograph or whatever, I draw a small picture—the size that will fit into my opaque projector&nbsp;... I don't draw a picture to reproduce it—I do it in order to recompose it&nbsp;... I project the drawing onto the canvas and pencil it in and then I play around with the drawing until it satisfies me.|sign=Lichtenstein<ref name=RLMoMA />|source=}}

When Lichtenstein had his first solo show at the [[Leo Castelli Gallery]] in New York City in February 1962, it sold out before the opening.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/artist-lichtenstein-dies-article-1.778643|title=Artist Lichtenstein Dies|work=NY Daily News|author=Moritz, Owen|date=September 30, 1997}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Great Masters of American Art|url=https://archive.org/details/greatmastersofam0000vigu|url-access=registration|author=Vigué, Jordi|date=2004|publisher=Watson-Guptill|page=[https://archive.org/details/greatmastersofam0000vigu/page/453 453]|isbn=978-0-8230-2114-7}}</ref> In addition to ''Drowning Girl'', the exhibition included ''Look Mickey'',<ref name=TPR>{{cite book|title=The Pop! Revolution|author=Marquis, Alice Goldfarb|page=37|chapter=The Arts Take Center Stage|isbn=978-0-87846-744-0|year=2010|publisher=[[MFA Publications]]}}</ref> ''[[Engagement Ring (Roy Lichtenstein)|Engagement Ring]]'', ''[[Blam (Roy Lichtenstein)|Blam]]'' and ''The Refrigerator''.<ref>{{cite book|title=Roy Lichtenstein: Mural With Blue Brushstroke| last =Tomkins | first = Calvin | isbn= 0-8109-2356-4| page = 25 | year=1988|publisher=[[Harry N. Abrams, Inc.|Harry N Abrams]]}}</ref> The show ran from February 10 through March 3, 1962.<ref name=RLOF4>{{Citation |title=Roy Lichtenstein: October Files|editor-last =Bader | editor-first = Graham|publisher=[[The MIT Press]]| year = 2009 | isbn = 978-0-262-01258-4 | chapter=Reviews 1962–64| last =Judd | first = Donald|pages=2–4}}</ref>  According to the Lichtenstein Foundation website, ''Drowning Girl'' was part of Lichtenstein's first exhibition at [[Ferus Gallery]] in Los Angeles from April 1&nbsp;– April 27, 1963, featuring ''[[Masterpiece (Roy Lichtenstein)|Masterpiece]]'', ''[[Portrait of Madame Cézanne (Roy Lichtenstein)|Portrait of Madame Cézanne]]'' and other works from 1962 and 1963. It was also part of his second solo exhibition at the Leo Castelli Gallery from September 28&nbsp;– October 24, 1963 that included ''[[Torpedo...Los!]]'', ''[[Baseball Manager]]'', ''In the Car'', ''Conversation'', and ''Whaam!''.<ref name=C>{{cite web|url=http://www.lichtensteinfoundation.org/lfchron1.htm |title=Chronology |access-date=June 9, 2013 |publisher=Roy Lichtenstein Foundation |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130606071341/http://lichtensteinfoundation.org/lfchron1.htm |archive-date=June 6, 2013 |df=mdy }}</ref><ref name=RLOF4/> Marketing materials for the show included the [[lithograph]] ''[[Crak!]]''<ref>{{cite web | work = Image duplicator | url = http://image-duplicator.com/search.php?string=Crak&search_year=&search_series= | type = Search Result | title = Crak! | access-date = June 26, 2013 | publisher = Lichtenstein Foundation | archive-date = March 12, 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160312125702/http://image-duplicator.com/search.php?search_series=&search_year=&string=crak | url-status = dead }}</ref><ref name=RLGB>{{cite book| title =Roy Lichtenstein|editor-last = Bader | editor-first = Graham | publisher =[[MIT Press]]|year=2009| isbn = 978-0-262-01258-4 | chapter = Technology Envisioned: Lichtenstein's Monocularity | last =Lobel | first = Michael|pages=118–20}}</ref> The Museum of Modern Art acquired ''Drowning Girl'' in 1971,<ref>{{cite book|title=Roy Lichtenstein |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=LG8xJ-LRHJkC&q=Museum+of+Modern+Art+%22Drowning+Girl%22+1971&pg=PA3 | last =Lanchner | first = Carolyn|page=3|isbn=978-0-87070-770-4 |publisher = [[Museum of Modern Art]]|year = 2009}}</ref> and their webpage for this work credits [[Philip Johnson]] and Mr. and Mrs. [[Bagley Wright]] for the acquisition.<ref name = MOMA />

==Description==
Some sources describe the subjects of Lichtenstein's tragic girls series as heroines (in the sense that they are the counterparts to the heroes),<ref name =RLAR@NGoA/> and others do not (in the sense that they are not heroic).<ref name=TGtUSPC>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=U3rJxPYT32MC&pg=PA490|title=The Guide to United States Popular Culture| last =Kongden | first = Kristen| editor1-last = Browne | editor1-first = Ray B | editor2-first = Pat | editor2-last = Browne |publisher=Popular Press 3|isbn=0-87972-821-3|page= 490|year= 2001 | access-date =June 7, 2013}}</ref> ''Drowning Girl'' is a painting of a female subject who would prefer to give in to the power of the ocean than call for aid. Lichtenstein's version of the scene eliminates everything but the sea and a few body parts of the subject: her head, shoulder and hand, which are barely above the water. As her face is presented her eyes are shut with drops of what appear to be tears flowing from them. Because Lichtenstein only presents a single frame, the viewer does not know what happened before this moment and what is going to happen after it.  Furthermore, the viewer has no way to know who Brad is and why she is so reluctant to call him.<ref name=RLAR@NGoA>{{cite web|url=http://dcist.com/2012/10/roy_lichtenstein_a_retrospective_na.php|title=Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective @ National Gallery of Art|access-date=June 8, 2013|date=October 11, 2012|last1=Rand|first1=Kelly|first2=Julia|last2=Langley|work=[[DCist]]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150228085008/http://dcist.com/2012/10/roy_lichtenstein_a_retrospective_na.php|archive-date=February 28, 2015|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

According to ''The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art'', the most important element of Lichtenstein's procedure in the early 1960s was "the enlargement and unification of his source material".<ref name =TGEoAA /> Although, according to some sources, the changes made to produce ''Drowning Girl'' are not regarded as significant,<ref name=W113>{{Harvnb | Waldman | 1993 | p = 113}}.</ref> Lichtenstein made several notable changes from the original source: "In the original illustration, the drowning girl's boyfriend appears in the background, clinging to a capsized boat. Lichtenstein cropped the image dramatically, showing the girl alone and encircled by a threatening wave. He changed the caption from 'I don't care if I have a cramp!' to 'I don't care!' and the boyfriend's name from Mal to Brad."<ref name=MOMA>{{cite web|url= http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A3542&page_number=3&template_id=1&sort_order=1 |title=''Drowning Girl'': Roy Lichtenstein (American, 1923–1997) |access-date=May 23, 2012|publisher=[[Museum of Modern Art]]}}</ref> With the former narrative change, Lichtenstein removed evidence that the drowning girl has a cramp in her leg.<ref name=RLAR@NGoA/> With the latter narrative change, Lichtenstein attempted to change the perception of the boyfriend. When discussing another work (''[[I Know...Brad]]''), Lichtenstein stated that the name Brad sounded heroic to him and was used with the aim of clichéd oversimplification.{{Sfn | Coplans | 1972 | p = 110}}

Lichtenstein's method entailed "strengthening of the formal aspects of the composition, a stylization of motif, and a 'freezing' of both emotion and actions".<ref name =TGEoAA /> Although comic-book panels depict a moment in time, ''Drowning Girl'' is borrowed from an example of a comic-book panel depiction of a moment relatively more "pregnant" with past- and future-dependent drama than most moments.<ref name=PoR>{{cite book|url= https://archive.org/details/picturesofromanc0000stei |url-access= registration |title=Pictures of Romance: Form against Context in Painting and Literature|publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]| last = Steiner | first = Wendy|isbn=0-226-77229-2|year=1987|page=[https://archive.org/details/picturesofromanc0000stei/page/156 156]}}</ref> This work also marks a phase in Lichtenstein's career when many of his works were given [[present participle|present-participial]] titles such as ''[[Sleeping Girl (Lichtenstein painting)|Sleeping Girl]]'', ''[[Crying Girl]]'' and ''Blonde Waiting'', which accentuates the works' "relation to process and action."<ref name=PoR/> According to ''The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art'', during this phase of Lichtenstein's career "a constant if restrained and a gentle sense of humor contribute just as much to the cheerful lightness of Lichtenstein's work as the balanced, completely harmonious composition."<ref name=TGEoAA />

[[File:Roy Lichtenstein Drowning Girl narrative.jpg|left|thumb|Narrative content of ''Drowning Girl'']]
Narrative content was in the forefront of much of Lichtenstein's work as a means to engage the viewer.<ref name=RLDW63>{{Harvnb | Waldman | 1993 | p = 63}}.</ref>  Measuring 171.6&nbsp;cm × 169.5&nbsp;cm (67.625 in × 66.75 in), ''Drowning Girl'' presents "a young woman who seems to have cried herself a river&nbsp;... literally drowning in emotion," according to Janis Hendrickson. The [[melodrama]] makes it clear that she has been hurt by a "Brad", the name given to several of Lichtenstein's heroes.<ref name=RLJH34a>{{cite book|title=Roy Lichtenstein| last =Hendrickson | first = Janis|publisher = [[Benedikt Taschen]]|year=1993|isbn=3-8228-9633-0|page=34|chapter=The Pictures That Lichtenstein Made Famous, or The Pictures That Made Lichtenstein Famous|quote=The ''Drowning Girl'' (Ill. p. 31) (1963) shows a young woman who seems to have cried herself a river. She is literally drowning in emotion and has abandoned herself to its destructive forces. Brad, the name of the man involved with several of Lichtenstein's "heroines", must have hurt her badly.}}</ref>  Vian Shamounki Borchert says that the caption makes it clear that the subject is practically "drowning in a sea of tears".<ref name="RLARatNGoAWD"/>

In typical Lichtenstein fashion, the tragic female is presented "in a suspended state of distress."<ref name=RLAR@NGoA/> According to Janis Hendrickson, the subject's head appears to rest on a wave as if it were a pillow and lies in the water as if it were a bed, creating a blend of "eroticism and final resting place".<ref name=RLJH34b>{{cite book|title=Roy Lichtenstein| last =Hendrickson | first = Janis|publisher = [[Benedikt Taschen]]|year=1993|isbn=3-8228-9633-0|page=34|chapter=The Pictures That Lichtenstein Made Famous, or The Pictures That Made Lichtenstein Famous|quote=She is lying in the water as if it were a bed, a mixture of eroticism and final resting place.}}</ref> The waters of the sea swirl around the subject's waves of hair creating the perception of a whirlpool.<ref name=RLAR@NGoA/> The painting is representative of Lichtenstein's affinity for single-frame drama that reduces the viewer's ability to identify with it and that abstracts emotion. His use of industrial and mechanical appearance further trivialize the sentiments,<ref name=RLJH34/> although the painterly touches add to its simplification.<ref name=DftM />

==General context==
In the early 1960s Lichtenstein's theme of comics-based work was hotly debated. In a 1963 article in ''[[The New York Times]]'', [[Brian O'Doherty]] wrote that Lichtenstein's work was not art, saying Lichtenstein was "one of the worst artists in America" who "briskly went about making a sow's ear out of a sow's ear."<ref name=PApRLda7/> This was part of a widespread debate about the merits of Lichtenstein's comic blow-ups as true art. In January 1964 ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'' ran a story under the title "Is He the Worst Artist in the U.S.?" on this controversy.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.lichtensteinfoundation.org/lifemagroy.htm |title=Is He the Worst Artist in the U.S.? |access-date=June 10, 2013 |date=January 31, 1964 |magazine=[[Life (magazine)|Life]] |publisher=Lichtenstein Foundation |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131104111859/http://www.lichtensteinfoundation.org/lifemagroy.htm |archive-date=November 4, 2013 }}</ref> Later reviews were much kinder. [[Todd Brewster]] noted that this may have been motivated by popular demand; he told ''Life'' in 1986 that "Those cartoon blowups may have disturbed the critics, but collectors, tired of the solemnity of abstract expressionism, were ready for some comic relief. Why couldn't the funny pages be fine art?"<ref name = PApRLda7 /> His work is now widely accepted, although some criticize him for borrowing from comics without attributing the original creators, paying royalties, or seeking permission from copyright holders.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2013/may/image-duplicator-pop-arts-comic-theft |title=Image Duplicator: pop art's comic debt |access-date=June 18, 2013 |date=May 13, 2013 |last=Steven |first=Rachael |work=[[Creative Review]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002013823/http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2013/may/image-duplicator-pop-arts-comic-theft |archive-date=October 2, 2013 }}</ref> David Barsalou has dedicated decades to identifying all of Lichtenstein's source materials and has posted more than 1,000 images on [[Flickr]] detailing Lichtenstein's unrecognized sources.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/02/02/deconstructing-lichtenstein-source-comics-revealed-and-credited/ |title=Deconstructing Lichtenstein: Source Comics Revealed and Credited |access-date=June 23, 2013 |date=February 2, 2011 |last=Childs |first=Brian |publisher=Comics Alliance |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130112223049/http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/02/02/deconstructing-lichtenstein-source-comics-revealed-and-credited/ |archive-date=January 12, 2013 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>

Some critics question Lichtenstein's artistic skills. [[Everett Kinstler]] said that despite Lichtenstein's association with romance comics, in his day "no comics publisher would have hired Lichtenstein—he wasn't good enough." Kinstler said Lichtenstein lacked the ability to portray the emotional range of the story through facial expressions and body language independently.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4dWeMZLTXScC&pg=PA163|title=The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America|access-date=July 2, 2013|year=2009|author=Hajdu, David|isbn=978-0-312-42823-5 |publisher=[[Picador (imprint)|Picador]]|page=163}}</ref>

==Reception==
[[File:Great Wave off Kanagawa2.jpg|thumb|Lichtenstein acknowledges that the wave is adapted from ''[[The Great Wave off Kanagawa]]'', the famous [[Woodblock printing in Japan|woodblock print]] by [[Hokusai]].<ref name=RLJH34 />]]
''Drowning Girl'' was painted at the apex of Lichtenstein's use of enlarged dots, cropping, and magnification of the original source.{{Sfn | Rondeau | Wagstaff | 2012 | p = 32}} In 1993, [[Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum]] curator Diane Waldman noted that Lichtenstein made ''Drowning Girl'' a cornerstone of his career because of "his extraordinary sense of organization, his ability to use a sweeping curve and manipulate it into an allover pattern".<ref name=RLDW75>{{Harvnb | Waldman | 1993 | p = 75}}.</ref> According to the 2007 edition of ''The Oxford Dictionary of American Art and Artists'', the work is "a mix of cliché, melodrama, pathos, and absurdity&nbsp;..."<ref>{{cite book|title= The Oxford Dictionary of American Art and Artists|url= https://archive.org/details/oxforddictionary0000morg|url-access= limited|page= [https://archive.org/details/oxforddictionary0000morg/page/282 282]|isbn = 978-0-19-512878-9 |year=2007| last =Morgan | first = Ann Lee|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]}}</ref> In 1995, art scholar Jonathan Fineberg called it "a remarkably impassive style".<ref>{{cite book|title=Art Since 1940: Strategies of Being| last =Fineberg | first = Jonathan|publisher=[[Harry N. Abrams]] | isbn = 0-8109-1951-6|year=1995|page=263}}</ref> The image is typical of Lichtenstein's depiction of comic subjects responding to a situation in a clichéd manner.{{Sfn | Coplans | 1972 | p = 15}}

Lichtenstein's tinkering with the source material resulted in a recomposition with sharper focus after he eliminated several elements that distract from the depiction of the woman, such as the [[capsizing|capsized]] boat, troubled male subject and the general seascape. The result, Lanchner wrote, was swirling, swooping waves and "animate white foam" that envelope the subject with a "pictorial buoyancy" that form an "aquatic continuum".<ref name=RLMoMA />

''Drowning Girl'' presents an "unmistakeable acknowledgement to the flamboyant linearism of [[Art Nouveau]]".<ref>{{cite book|title=An Illustrated History of Pop Art|last=Pierre|first=José|publisher=Eyre Methuen|isbn=0-413-38370-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/popartillustrate00pier/page/94 94]|year=1977|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/popartillustrate00pier/page/94}}</ref> The waves are intended to "recall [[Hokusai]] as well as the biomorphic forms of [[Jean Arp|Arp]] and [[Joan Miró|Miró]];"{{Sfn | Coplans | 1972 | p = 26}} just as the source comics may have intended to.{{Sfn | Coplans | 1972 | p = 91}}  Lichtenstein has claimed a strong relation between the original comic book source panel and Hokusai's ''[[The Great Wave off Kanagawa]]'', making this work a bridge between the two.{{Sfn | Rondeau | Wagstaff | 2012 | p = 48}}  The adaptation of the wave print is said to add a decorative look and feel to the painting, without which the work might be much more alarming to the viewer.<ref name= RLJH34>{{cite book|title=Roy Lichtenstein| last =Hendrickson | first = Janis|publisher=[[Benedikt Taschen]] |year= 1993 | isbn = 3-8228-9633-0 |page=34|chapter = The Pictures That Lichtenstein Made Famous, or The Pictures That Made Lichtenstein Famous}}</ref> Lichtenstein even made the connection between ''Drowning Girl'''s arabesque waves and "the Art Nouveau aesthetic".<ref>{{cite book| title=Retro: The Culture of Revival|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2d8J08XNdKEC&pg=PA66 |access-date=June 6, 2013|publisher=[[Reaktion Books]]| last =Guffey | first = Elizabeth E.|isbn=1-86189-290-X|year= 2006 | pages =66–67}}</ref> Regarding this work, Lichtenstein stated:<ref name = RLDW75 /><ref>{{cite book|title=Pop Art: A Critical History|editor-last =Madoff | editor-first = Steven Henry|isbn=0-520-21018-2|page= 202| year = 1997 | publisher =[[University of California Press]]|chapter=Focus: The Major Artists}}</ref>
{{Quote |text=In the ''Drowning Girl'' the water is not only Art Nouveau, but it can also be seen as Hokusai. I don't do it just because it is  another reference. Cartooning itself sometimes resembles other periods in art&nbsp;– perhaps unknowingly&nbsp;... They do things like the little Hokusai waves in the ''Drowning Girl''. But the original wasn't very clear in this regard&nbsp;– why should it be? I saw it and then pushed it a little further until it was a reference that most people will get&nbsp;... it is a way of crystallizing the style by exaggeration.}}

Tøjner describes the work as "Lichtenstein's finest formulation of a counter-image to the many explosions in his universe", noting that the drama is past its peak although it may seem to be at a crescendo.<ref name="RLAAA19">{{Harvnb|Holm|Tøjner|Caiger-Smith|2003|p=19}}</ref> He also notes that "the tears are drawn with classic Lichtenstein waxy fullness" despite the surrounding water, which must be significant since "naturalistic justification" is absent.<ref name=RLAAA19/> A November 1963 ''Art Magazine'' review stated that this was one of the "broad and powerful paintings" of the 1963 exhibition at Castelli's Gallery.<ref name=RLOF4/> Nonetheless, the name of the work was not universally known.  In ''Art Magazine's'' review of his 1964 Castelli Gallery show, Lichtenstein was referred to as the author of ''I Don't Care, I'd Rather Sink'' (''Drowning Girl'').<ref name=RLOF4/> In 2005, Gary Garrels of the Museum of Modern Art wrote that the work is a "poetics of the utterly banal, of displaced ordinariness" resulting in an "image frozen in time and space", making it "iconic".<ref name =DftM>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=aFikE_v1OJIC&pg=PA28 |title = Drawing from the Modern: 1945–1975|volume=2|page=28|access-date = June 6, 2013 |year=2005|publisher=[[Museum of Modern Art]]| last =Garrels | first = Gary|isbn=0-87070-664-0}}</ref> Comparing this to the source, Garrels says it is a rendering "in a simplified vocabulary" produced while Lichtenstein put aside his mechanical objectivity.<ref name=DftM /> According to ''The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art'', extreme examples of his formalization become "virtual abstraction" when the viewer recalls that the motif is an element of a larger work. Thus, Lichtenstein reinforced a non-realist view of comic strips and advertisements, presenting them as artificial images with minimalistic graphic techniques. Lichtenstein's magnification of his source material stressed the plainness of his motifs as an equivalent to mechanical commercial drawing, leading to implications about his statements on modern industrial America. Nonetheless, Lichtenstein appears to have accepted the American capitalist industrial culture.<ref name =TGEoAA />

In 2003, Sarah Rich and Joyce Henri Robinson contrasted Lichtenstein's [[Ben-Day dots]] use in ''Drowning Girl'' with another artist's work, noting that the work "satirizes the melodrama of soap operas and serial comics, turning the drama of the title figure's potential suicide into a high camp performance".<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LmkJe9li2BgC&pg=PA13|title=Through the Looking Glass: Women and Self-Representation in Contemporary Art|last1=Rich|first1=Sarah|last2=Robinson|first2=Joyce Henri|publisher=[[Palmer Museum of Art]]|year=2003|isbn=0-911209-60-3|page=13|access-date=June 7, 2013}}</ref>

In 2009, Lanchner wrote of how Lichtenstein's translation of a "highly charged" content with coolly handled presentation intensified the contrast between the two.<ref name="RLMoMA" />

Many sources describe ''Whaam!'' and ''Drowning Girl'' as Lichtenstein's most famous works.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MBzPzzJwxwEC&q=%22Drowning+Girl%22+Lichtenstein&pg=PT153|title=Why Does Batman Carry Shark Repellent?: And Other Amazing Comic Book Trivia!|author=Cronin, Brian|publisher=[[Penguin Books]]|year=2012|isbn=978-1-101-58544-3|access-date=June 6, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2013/02/18/lichtenstein-show-in-uk-goes-beyond-cartoon-classics/|title=Lichtenstein show in UK goes beyond cartoon classics|last=Collett-White|first=Michael 'Mike'|date=February 18, 2013|work=[[Chicago Tribune]]|access-date=June 8, 2013|agency=[[Reuters]]}}</ref> It is also regarded as one of his most influential works along with ''Whaam!'' and ''Look Mickey''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2012/09/21/pop-art-pioneer-lichtenstein-in-tate-modern-retrospective/|title=Pop art pioneer Lichtenstein in Tate Modern retrospective|last=Hoang|first=Li-mei|date=September 21, 2012|work=[[Chicago Tribune]]|access-date=June 8, 2013}}</ref> [[John Elderfield]], Museum of Modern Art chief curator noted that the 2004 "MoMA in Berlin" exhibition held during the museum's renovation was a "synoptic overview of 20th-century art". Highlights from the 212-piece exhibition according to various publications such as ''[[The New York Times]]'' and [[artnet]] were [[van Gogh]]'s ''[[The Starry Night]]'', [[Matisse]]'s ''[[Dance (Matisse)|Dance]]'' and Lichtenstein's ''Drowning Girl'', all of which were touring outside the United States for the first time.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.artnet.com/magazine/features/bradley/bradley2-23-04.asp|title=Berlin, Starstruck|author=Bradley, Kimberly|date=February 23, 2004|work=[[artnet]]|access-date=July 6, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/19/arts/arts-briefing-highlights-art-212-to-berlin.html|title=Arts Briefing: Highlights; Art: 212 To Berlin|author=Grieshaber, Kirsten|date=February 19, 2004|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=July 11, 2013}}</ref>

''Drowning Girl'' was part of the largest-ever retrospective of Lichtenstein, which visited the [[Art Institute of Chicago]] in 2012, the [[National Gallery of Art]] in [[Washington, D.C.]], in 2012 and 2013, the [[Tate Modern]] in London in 2013, and the [[The Centre Pompidou|Centre Pompidou]] in 2013.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/22/roy-lichtenstein_n_1533997.html|title='Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective' Debuts At The Art Institute of Chicago|date=May 22, 2012|work=[[The Huffington Post]]|type=photograms|access-date=June 8, 2013}}</ref> During the 2012–13 retrospective, ''[[The Huffington Post]]'' described ''Drowning Girl'' as Lichtenstein's "masterpiece of melodrama".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/02/18/roy-lichtenstein-retrospective-at-tate-modern-review_n_2710865.html|title=Roy Lichtenstein: Retrospective At Tate Modern (Review)|last=Parker|first=Sam|date=February 18, 2012|work=[[The Huffington Post]]|access-date=June 6, 2013}}</ref> Danish art critic and [[Louisiana Museum of Modern Art]] director [[Poul Erik Tøjner]] called the work an example of Lichtenstein's "post-[[coital]] perdition" pieces, describing it as the "star witness" of this genre of his works. He notes that the subject is reaching far-flung depths as she acts out of pride.<ref name="RLAAA19" /> Tøjner perceived eroticism in this painting, likening the open mouth to a vaginal feature and noting the singularity of Lichtenstein using an open mouth. With that in mind, he compares the tears to [[ejaculate]] residue.<ref name="RLAAA21">{{Harvnb|Holm|Tøjner|Caiger-Smith|2003|p=21}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Comics|Visual arts}}
* [[1963 in art]]
{{clear}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|30em}}

==References==
* {{Citation |title=Roy Lichtenstein: October Files|editor-last =Bader | editor-first = Graham|publisher=[[The MIT Press]]|year=2009|isbn = 978-0-262-01258-4}}.
* {{Citation |title=Roy Lichtenstein|publisher=[[Praeger Publishers]]|editor-last =Coplans | editor-first = John| year= 1972}}.
* {{Citation |title=Roy Lichtenstein: All About Art |publisher=Louisiana Museum of Modern Art|editor1-last =Holm | editor1-first = Michael Juul | editor2-first = Poul Erik | editor2-last = Tøjner | editor3-first = Martin | editor3-last = Caiger-Smith|year=2003|isbn= 87-90029-85-2}}.
*[[Michael Lobel|Lobel, Michael]] (2002), ''Image Duplicator: Roy Lichtenstein and the Emergence of Pop Art'', Yale University Press, {{ISBN|0300087624}}-9780300087628.
* {{Citation |title=Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective|publisher=[[Art Institute of Chicago]]| last1 =Rondeau | first1 = James | first2 = Sheena | last2 = Wagstaff|isbn=978-0-300-17971-2|year=2012|editor-last =Rigas | editor-first = Maia M.}}.
* {{Citation|title= Roy Lichtenstein|last= Waldman|first= Diane|year= 1993|publisher= [[Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum]]|isbn= 0-89207-108-7|url-access= registration|url= https://archive.org/details/roylich00wald}}.

==External links==
* {{Citation | url = http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A3542&page_number=3&template_id=1&sort_order=1 | publisher = Museum of Modern Art Collection | title = Collection }}.
* {{Citation | url = http://image-duplicator.com/main.php?work_id=0117&year=1963&decade=60 | title = Lichtenstein Foundation | publisher = Image duplicator | access-date = May 14, 2012 | archive-date = June 12, 2018 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180612140315/http://image-duplicator.com/main.php?work_id=0117&year=1963&decade=60 | url-status = dead }}.

{{Roy Lichtenstein}}

[[Category:1963 paintings]]
[[Category:20th-century portraits]]
[[Category:Paintings by Roy Lichtenstein]]
[[Category:Paintings in the Museum of Modern Art (New York City)]]
[[Category:Portraits by American artists]]
[[Category:Works based on DC Comics]]
[[Category:Paintings about suicide]]
[[Category:Bathing in art]]
[[Category:Drowning]]