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 roy lichtenstein
 to access audio and video on collective you need real player.Pop corn at London’s Hayward Gallery. Why is it that so many artists are innovative and boundary breaking in the early part of their careers, then begin to lose their impetus as they get older? Roy Lichtenstein, sadly, is no exception to this rule. His retrospective at the Hayward is at times brilliant and enlightening, and at others flat and confused. His early work, with its funny comments on art’s hierarchies, still has bite. Common feelings and objects are super-sized in a palette of block primary colours and pixelated dots. In images like the beautifully simple black-and-white Ball Of Twine, the everyday becomes iconic. His famous romantic comic-book images, like Cold Shoulder, are full of exaggerated emotional clichés. In the 70s it appears everything went a bit wrong. The paintings lost their simple coherence and became a mess of imagery. The recent Japanese-influenced landscapes with their sense of open space are better. However, it’s more “Aah” than “Wham Bam Pow”. Roy Lichtenstein is at the Hayward Gallery, London, until 16 May 04.
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