Untitled Head I
25.5 x 10 x 5.9 inchesUntitled Head I, 1970
brass sculpture
25.5 x 10 x 5.9 inches
edition of 75
incised with the Artist's signature, edition number, date, Gemini G.E.L. chop mark and copyright on a copper plate affixed to the underside
Published by Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles
Literature
Gregorio Magnani and Daniel Buchholz, International Index of Multiples: From Duchamp to the Present, Cologne, 1993, p. 124
Gemini G.E.L. and National Gallery of Art. Gemini G.E.L. Catalogue Raisonné (Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.), 2001, no. 31.31 color ill.
Celant, Germano. Roy Lichtenstein Sculptor. Milan: Skira Editore for Fondazione Emilio e Annabianca Vedova, 2013. Exhibition catalogue (2013 Venice Vedova), fig. 31 p. 35 color ill. (with Jeff Sanders of Gemini G.E.L.), no. 49 p. 92 color ill. [not exhibited].
Celant, Germano. Roy Lichtenstein Sculptor. Milan: Skira Editore for Fondazione Emilio e Annabianca Vedova, 2013. Exhibition catalogue (2013 Venice Vedova), fig. 31 p. 35 color ill. (with Jeff Sanders of Gemini G.E.L.), no. 49 p. 92 color ill. [not exhibited].
Wolfe, Julie. Roy Lichtenstein: Outdoor Painted Sculpture. Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute, 2023, no. 1.22 p. 24 color ill. M. Corlett, The Prints of Roy Lichtenstein: A Catalogue Raisonne 1948-1993, New York, 1994, pg 27, fig. 14, illustrated in black and white.
Exhibitions
New York, Castelli Graphics, Roy Lichtenstein: New Editions, Lithographs, Sculptures, Reliefs, September - October 1970, another example exhibited.
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Multiples: The First Decade, March - April 1971, another example exhibited.
The Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, A Selection of 20th Century Three-Dimensional Portraits and Related Drawings, November 1984 - January 1985, another example exhibited.
East Hampton, Guild Hall Museum, Roy Lichtenstein: Three Decades of Sculpture, August - October 1992, another example exhibited.
Museo del Palacio De Bellas Artes, Salas Nacional Y Diego Rivera; Museo de Arte Contemporyneo de Monterrey; Washington D.C., Corcoran Gallery of Art; Valencia, Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno; La Coruña, Fundacion Pedro Barrio de la Maza; Lisbon, Centro Cultural de Belem; July 1998 - August 2000, another example exhibited.
Twentieth Century American Sculpture at the White House - Exhibition V, 1997, n.p., illustrated in color, another example exhibited.
Selected Museum Collections
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, another impression.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., another impression.
Full documentation: Roy Lichtenstein Foundation
Modern Head was initially commissioned by Ernest W. Hahn, Inc. and Santa Anita Consolidated, Inc. for Fashion Park, Santa Anita Shopping Center, Arcadia, California. The project was first discussed with the artist in October 1973. A commission agreement was signed in November 1973. In January 1974, a maquette (RLCR 2318) was approved by Hahn and Robert Strub of Santa Anita Consolidated, Inc. Fabricated by Jeff Sanders, Tomkins Tooling Industry, Gardena, California, the sculpture was installed October 7, 1974 and dedicated October 14, 1974.
ROY LICHTENSTEIN MODERN HEAD
Modern Head was initially commissioned by Ernest W. Hahn, Inc. and Santa Anita Consolidated, Inc. for Fashion Park, Santa Anita Shopping Center, Arcadia, California. The project was first discussed with the artist in October 1973. A commission agreement was signed in November 1973. In January 1974, a maquette (RLCR 2318) was approved by Hahn and Robert Strub of Santa Anita Consolidated, Inc. Fabricated by Jeff Sanders, Tomkins Tooling Industry, Gardena, California, the sculpture was installed October 7, 1974 and dedicated October 14, 1974.
Modern Head 1974 (fabricated 1974)
In the 1980s the mall was sold and the sculpture was to be removed. In 1989, Lichtenstein approved repurposing the design for the fabrication of four casts, three in stainless steel (RLCR 2319) and one painted in blue (RLCR 2320). The sculptures were commissioned by James Goodman and Jeffrey Loria and fabricated by Lippincott, Inc., North Haven, Connecticut. The original Modern Head sculpture was used as a template for fabrication and likely destroyed in the process that same year.
Modern Head stands thirty-one feet tall and is made of stainless steel painted blue. The sculpture is part of a series Lichtenstein began in the late 1960s that explored the idea of creating images of human figures that look like machines. This concept pervaded the artist's work throughout his career.
Lichtenstein created the first Modern Head in 1974 out of wood that was painted blue. In 1989 he produced an edition of four in brushed steel. In 1990 the artist painted one a vibrant blue, making the sculpture in American Art's collection a unique work.
Modern Head 1974 (fabricated 1994)
At Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. in 2008
Silhouetted against the urban skyline, the flat planes and curvilinear geometric forms of the sculpture blend the streamlined industrial style of 1930s art deco architecture and design with references to Picasso and Apollo, the Greek god of the arts.
In 1996, Modern Head was installed by the Public Art Fund of New York City in Battery Park City, one block from the World Trade Center. The sculpture survived the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks with only surface scratches and was temporarily used by the FBI as a message board during its investigations. The sculpture was removed from the site on November 9, 2001and was subsequently on view at the Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn Harbor, New Yorkand at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables, Florida.
