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ROY LICHTENSTEIN
Sunrise
.
Color silk panel, 1965. 1220x1115 mm; 48x44 inches. One of only 3 or 4 known panels.
With the artist’s signature in black, lower edge. Published by the artist, New York. Ex-
collection private collection, NewYork, acquired directly from the artist.
According to Corlett,“The image on the fabric was designed by Lichtenstein. It was made
into a dress, designed by Lee Rudd Simpson specifically for Lichtenstein’s friend Letty
Lou Eisenhauer to wear to his opening at the Galerie Ileana Sonnabend in Paris in 1965.
In addition to the dress, one other panel is known to exist.”
Corlett cites the dress, now in the the Kyoto Costume Institute, Japan (see image below),
and another panel listed on the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, NewYork, website.
The current panel is from a private collection, acquired directly from the artist, of one of
the collaborators on the dress project who assisted Lee Rudd Simpson with the design
and the fitting of the dress.According to the collector, there were likely additional panels
given to Simpson and another collaborator on the project (possibly Spike Landsman,
according to the collector).
Lichtenstein conceived this personal project ultimately as a dress design for his then
girlfriend and fellow artist Letty Lou Eisenhauer to wear to the opening of his solo
exhibition at Galerie Ileana Sonnabend, “Roy Lichtenstein,” June 1-30, 1965, and only
one dress was made from the several panels produced in the extremely limited run.
A similar sunrise design was incorporated by Lichtenstein for a more widely circulated
offset color lithograph, published by Leo Castelli Gallery, NewYork, that may have been
used promotionally for one of several shows in which Lichtenstein’s work appeared at the
Castelli Gallery during 1965 (see Corlett II, 7) as well as an oil painting and several
enamels on metal also from 1965. His earliest use of the sunrise motif dates to 1964 in
two separate oil paintings. These sunrises were appropriated from the backgrounds of
cartoon scenes and as such directly tie-in to the comic-inspired work that launched his
career as one of the foremost Pop artists starting in the early 1960s. Corlett III. 42.
[40,000/60,000]
Roy Lichtenstein and Lee Rudd Simpson
©The Kyoto Costume Institute, photo by Takashi Hatakeyama