Artwork Information

Lichtenstein’s ‘Modern head’ series bridges the gap between high art and popular culture. The pseudo-cubist geometry of this image is a parody of the art moderne style of the 1920s and 1930s that celebrated the heroic potential of humankind and technology. However, it draws in the first instance on a group of constructivist heads by the Russian expressionist painter, Alexei Jawlensky, that Lichtenstein saw at the Pasadena Art Museum in 1968. (Andy and Friends, 1999)