Analysis of Cubist Painting

As a DW (Developmental Workbook) Assignment we were to to an analysis of a cubist painting of our choice, relating it to the cubist artwork that we will be doing ourselves. For this analysis I chose Roy Lichtenstein's "Cubist Still Life With Playing Cards" from 1974.

The painting shows a cartoon-ish image with different objects of different sizes, not necessarily relative to eac other, and various different textures. This, together with the clear contours and lines, creates an appealing boldness in the image. The simplicity of it makes it appear less cluttered and unorganized, though the painter has managed to fully keep the cubism properties of the painting.

I chose this picture because I find it a very appealing image on various levels, and I think it highly relates to the cubist artwork that we will be doing.
The painting has few, clear contours, as in our artwork, and, like in our painting, the guitar is one of the main features. I admire the way that the painter has used various objects that are not necessarily connected, such as the bottle, playing cards and the guitar, but they all have similar styles, creating a feeling of "unity" in the painting. I also like how the painter has used various textures, but also these fit together style-wise.
Although the objects themselves are not as abstract as many other cubist paintings, the painter has used various sizes of the objects and cut the objects off with the contours and some images appearing several places, so that  it is not always so see what all the objects are, and there is plenty of room for interpretation, giving the painting the "abstract" feeling.
All of these features are either evident or applicable  in the painting that we will be doing.


Some elements that I will try to apply while doing my own paintwork is that I will try to use different textures that have the same style, so all the elements of the image will fit together, and also how the texture highly contributes to the graphics of the painting, for example with the wood of the real guitar exaggerated and used in the artwork itself. I will try to focus on creating the same boldness as in this painting, something I will not solely focus on for the sake of my picture, but also for self-development, since my artworks tend to be a little "careful" with dull tones and unclear contours.

I find that this painting will be a clear, helpful guide throughout my process.