Foot and Hand (Corlett II.4) by Roy Lichtenstein

Provenance:
Private Collection, Calgary

Literature:
Mary Lee Corlett, “The Prints of Roy Lichtenstein: A Catalogue Raisonné, 1984–1993”, New York/Washington, D.C., 1994, page 253, reproduced page 256, catalogue no. Corlett 11.4
Jacklyn Babbington, “Roy Lichtenstein: Pop Remix”, Canberra, 2012, page 29

Roy Lichtenstein had his first solo exhibition at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York in 1962. As Jacklyn Babbington, the curator of “Pop Remix” at The National Gallery of Australia in 2013, writes: “[Roy] Lichtenstein both thrilled and dismayed the New York intelligentsia with his use of commercial images seemingly lifted straight from the Yellow Pages or teenage romance and war comics.” This was also when the artist began using Benday dots and unifying black lines. Like Warhol, who also exhibited at Castelli, the gallery had the artists create a series of printed images that would be used as exhibition posters to announce shows and as mailers. Many of these were issued as signed and numbered editions. Mary Lee Corlett explains in Lichtenstein’s catalogue raisonné: “In general Lichtenstein would provide the black–line drawing of the image, with overlays for color; the designer would create the typography and layout of the poster/mailer and would see the job through to completion.”

“Foot and Hand” is part of the artist’s early entry into Pop Art. Completed in 1964, it features only three colours: yellow, red, and black and is filled in with Benday dots. Lichtenstein focuses on a dramatic moment where a booted foot is shown stepping on a hand reaching for a gun. The work was inspired by a scene from a comic series about the teenage outlaw Billy the Kid, for which Dick Giordano did the art and whom Lichtenstein greatly admired.