Artists

TATE’S GREATEST HITS3 GWEN JOHN, CHLOE BOUGHTON-LEIGHGwen John’s portrait fixes a complex character. Withundone hair, Boughton-Leigh appears at ease with theworld though her pose against the wall hints at adefensiveness and anxiety. John’s colours are realistic,suggestive of a subdued and quiet world. In laying out theportrait she needed to add a strip at the bottom of thecomposition to accommodate the hands – an adjustmentthat has, unfortunately, become apparent with time. John isknown for the quiet intensity of her works, an intimacy thatrepays contemplation.GWEN JOHN, CHLOË BOUGHTON-LEIGH 1904-8, OIL PAINT ON CANVAS, 59X38CM, TATE. PURCHASED 1925ROY LICHTENSTEIN’S WHAAM!Lichtenstein made detailed preparatory drawings for hiscompositions and, indeed, Tate owns a drawing forWhaam!. Comics, advertising and commercial art wereeverywhere in the boom of the 1950s and 1960s, butwere ignored by ‘high’ art. Pop artists actively brokethose hierarchies by adapting the visual techniques ofthe everyday world.Purpose and position sets Lichtenstein apart from thecommercial art he drew from: he was not using imageryto advertise a product or service, and he positioned hiswork within, and in response to, a longer history of art.In this sense Whaam! may be seen as contemporaryhistory painting. He used stencils to make hisequivalent to the comics’ ‘ben-day’ dots regular, and tolend the work a more impersonal appearance.Whaam! is one of those works that people seek out,although when it was first acquired its pop aestheticwas considered very controversial. Taste changes.``````Artists & Illustrators 31``````>28 Tate's Greatest Hits.indd 31 10/06/2016 15:35