Roy Lichtenstein
Entablature X (C.147), 1976
Screenprint, lithograph, collage with embossing on BFK Rives paper
74.1 × 114.1 cm
29.2 × 44.9 in
29.2 × 44.9 in
Edition of 18; plus 9 AP, 2 CTP, 1 RTP, 1 PPI, 1 A
Series: Entablature Series
Signed, numbered and dated in pencil
Entablature X (C.147) and its companion Entablature XA (C.148) closed Roy Lichtenstein's Entablature Series as works distinguished by their inclusion of text — the word JVSTITIA, the Latin for justice,...
Entablature X (C.147) and its companion Entablature XA (C.148) closed Roy Lichtenstein's Entablature Series as works distinguished by their inclusion of text — the word JVSTITIA, the Latin for justice, rendered in bold letterforms across the architectural ornament. The text introduced a dimension absent from the preceding works: where the earlier Entablature prints had examined the visual language of classical architecture as a formal system, the inclusion of JVSTITIA made explicit the ideological content that the series had previously held at arm's length.
JVSTITIA was the inscription above a specific civic building — a courthouse — and its appearance in the final works of the series turned the Entablature prints' formal argument into a direct question about the relationship between architectural decoration and institutional power. The classical entablature had been adopted by American civic architecture precisely because it carried associations of permanence, authority, and civilisational continuity. Roy Lichtenstein's rendering of that inscription through the flat graphic language of Pop Art did not satirise the claim but made its construction visible.
Entablature X (C.147) closed the series with an explicitness that all the preceding prints had avoided — naming, at last, the ideological content that the decorative system had always been carrying, and making that naming itself the final formal act of one of Lichtenstein's most sustained and ambitious print series.
Browse Roy Lichtenstein signed prints for sale, or enquire about selling Roy Lichtenstein prints.
JVSTITIA was the inscription above a specific civic building — a courthouse — and its appearance in the final works of the series turned the Entablature prints' formal argument into a direct question about the relationship between architectural decoration and institutional power. The classical entablature had been adopted by American civic architecture precisely because it carried associations of permanence, authority, and civilisational continuity. Roy Lichtenstein's rendering of that inscription through the flat graphic language of Pop Art did not satirise the claim but made its construction visible.
Entablature X (C.147) closed the series with an explicitness that all the preceding prints had avoided — naming, at last, the ideological content that the decorative system had always been carrying, and making that naming itself the final formal act of one of Lichtenstein's most sustained and ambitious print series.
Browse Roy Lichtenstein signed prints for sale, or enquire about selling Roy Lichtenstein prints.
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