Aged 19, this illustrated letter sent from Roy Lichtenstein to his mother was written in 1944, a year after he was drafted into the army. Inscribed and signed, the letter reads:
‘To my Devoted Mother: The above sentiment comes, not from the hand, but from the heart. I shall remember you always, Mother Dear, in your lavender and lace, knitting by the fireside, or cooking scrumptious apple pie in the kitchen, and matzo ball soup, also in the kitchen. M-m-m, that reminds me. I think I'll go to the PX for a bite to eat. Love Roy’
Above his words is an illustration in brush and ink, coloured pencil and opaque watercolour on paper. We see three couples depicted - in conversation, sharing a drink, dancing - amid what appears to be the bustle of New York, where he grew up. This sketch that ‘comes, not from the hand, but from the heart’ seems to nostalgically capture a world far removed from his new-found army life. The note is infused with nostalgic sensory longing for home comforts - visual ‘knitting by the fireside’, tactile ‘lavender and lace’ and scents ‘scrumptious apple pie’. These intimate, domestic details are juxtaposed against the more animated nightlife scenes depicted in the illustrations. The furrowed brow of the man in the centre, could possibly be his father, missing his son.
The datemark of the envelope is May 1944. Two months earlier in March, Lichtenstein arrived at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi, for a pilot-training program before he hitchiked with pals to New Orleans. Due to the vast number of casualties in the Battle of the Bulge and the need for soldiers to replace them, the pilot-training program was terminated a month later. Lichtenstein would have undoubtedly been affected by this close proximity to mortality. A month later in April, he arrived at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, and reported to 69th Infantry Division, Ninth Army headquarters where he served as orderly to a two-star major general. Duties include enlarging the William H. Mauldin cartoons in Stars and Stripes for his commanding officer.
This comical letter was written in c. 1947-8 to Frances Joan Lane, his girlfriend in the 1940s. The illustrated letter depicts a humorous advertisement for marriage proposals with the bold questions at the top ‘Are you unhappily wed?’ and ‘Do you spend loveless night’? Lichtenstein seems to be playfully teasing the role of advertising in its depiction of unmarried women as ‘lonely, frustrated creatures’. His mocking ‘proposal plan’ enables women to find ‘many stimulating occupations’ in a marriage where they can ‘wash socks, clean house, cook meals, mope around the house, ride subways and work in advertising agencies!’ He includes a mocked up form to be completed and cut out besides bold capitals ‘enroll now’.
Only the year before in 1946, he returned from the army to complete his degree. His immersion back in society would undoubtedly have confronted him with the active force of advertising, as well as his own personal prospects of marriage as a 23 year old man. Lichtenstein also faced a lot of change in his family life in this period - in February 1946 his father died. Whilst the letter isn’t dated, the return postal address for the fictitious form is listed as 394 East 15th Avenue, Columbus, Ohio where he lived at the time.
This fragment of an illustrated letter in watercolour sent to Frances Joan Lane c. 1947-8 depicts an abstract face with two eyes and a vase with yellow flowers in the bottom right. Around this time, in January 1947, he had enrolled in the Graduate School of Fine and Applied Arts at OSU. In Spring 1947, his classes included Water Colour Painting which is likely why he incorporated watercolour sketches into his letters. In comparison to the letter he sent to his mother three years earlier, this letter has a more confident and bold treatment of colour. We begin to see the emergence of primary colours in the presence of blue and yellow.
During this time, he occasionally returns to New York with friends Stanley Twardowicz and Csuri to visit galleries. His paintings during 1947 explore bulbous figures with animated features. He describes his work of this period "a little bit like Klee, or maybe Miro."
In 1969, Roy Lichtenstein wrote to Walasse Ting to thank him for a copy of his 1969 book ‘Hot and Sour Soup’. The letter reads:
Dear Walasse, "Hot + Sour Soup" is beautiful!! We love it! We can't think of great enough things to say about it. Thank you so much — Dorothy + Roy
Five years earlier in 1965, Roy Lichtenstein included two illustrations in Walasse Ting’s poem ‘Around the U.S.A.’ He had met Dorothy in the Spring of 1964. In 1969 Roy Lichtenstein produced the print ‘Real Estate’ which features an architectural drawing and for a while, Roy Lichtenstein used on his own letterhead, "because if you write to enamel companies (with that on your letterhead) they will take you seriously" (he said to Fine on August 11, 1993). His ‘Real Estate’ print is a seemingly simple design, but is actually incredibly intricate with dozens of tiny, meticulously detailed window panes, which contrast against the dense block of white cloud surrounded by his signature Benday dots.
This birthday card was sent to Roy’s son Mitchell Lichtenstein c. 1980-85. The explosion speech bubble reflects the vibrant, explosion-style shapes seen throughout his Pop art. ‘Love Dorothy + Pop!’ is also written inside an explosion shape, incorporating his use of onomatopoeia in his family correspondence.
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