Bratatat!

File:Bratatat! source.jpg #90 © March–April 1962, National Periodical Publications (DC).]]

Lichtenstein was a trained United States Army pilot, draftsman and artist as well as a World War II veteran who never saw active combat.{{cite web|url=http://www.lichtensteinfoundation.org/lfchron1.htm|title=Chronology|access-date=June 9, 2013|publisher=Roy Lichtenstein Foundation|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130606071341/http://lichtensteinfoundation.org/lfchron1.htm|archive-date=June 6, 2013|df=mdy-all}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Si6QJBrxtRMC&q=Whaam%21+Lichtenstein&pg=PA71|title=H.C. Westermann at War: Art and Manhood in Cold War America|access-date=May 16, 2013|year=2004|isbn=087413871X|page=71|publisher=University of Delaware Press|author=McCarthy, David}} His list of aeronautical themed works is extensive. Within that genre, Lichtenstein has produced several works featuring pilots situated in cockpits during air combat such as Jet Pilot (1962), Brattata (1962), Bratatat! (1963), and Okay Hot-Shot, Okay! (1963).{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ISeibypYDEcC&q=bratatat+lichtenstein&pg=PA275|title=The Airplane in American Culture|access-date=June 21, 2013|year=2003|publisher=University of Michigan Press|page=275|isbn=0472068334|editor=Pisano, Dominick A.}} Bratatat! along with Whaam! and Varoom! are among Lichtenstein's most recognizable onomatopoeic works.{{cite web|url=http://www.mrporter.com/journal/journal_issue101/6#1|title=The Report: Mr Roy Lichtenstein|access-date=June 23, 2013|date=February 12, 2013|publisher=MrPorter.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130629065016/http://www.mrporter.com/journal/journal_issue101/6#1|archive-date=June 29, 2013|url-status=dead}}

The source of Bratatat! is All-American Men of War #90 (March–April 1962, DC Comics).{{cite web|url=http://image-duplicator.com/main.php?work_id=0280&year=1962&decade=60|title=Bratatat!|access-date=June 24, 2013|publisher=LichtensteinFoundation.org}} Bratatat! depicts a jet fighter pilot engaged in military conflict. The black and white sketch of this work has been on a worldwide tour, accompanied by DC Comics artwork.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/arts/design/09vogel.html?_r=0|title=Fresh Perspective on Familiar Pop Master|access-date=June 23, 2013|date=July 8, 2010|work=The New York Times|author=Vogel, Carol}}{{cite web|url=http://blogs.forward.com/the-arty-semite/131699/roy-lichtensteins-mark-that-was-art/|title=Roy Lichtenstein's 'Mark That Was Art'|access-date=June 23, 2013|date=September 29, 2010|work=The Forward|author=Rolnick, Katie}}

The painting is symbolic of Lichtenstein's portfolio of work and is widely celebrated, as much for the name as for the actual graphical content of military conflict, in the marketing of the artist and his works.{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2012/05/whaam-the-roy-lichtenstein-retrospective-at-the-art-institute-of-chicago/|title=Whaam!: The Roy Lichtenstein Retrospective at the Art Institute of Chicago|access-date=June 23, 2013|date=May 22, 2012|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica|author=Kuiper, Kathleen}}{{cite web|url=http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/features/culture/roy-lichtenstein-a-retrospective/2001789.article|title=Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective|access-date=June 23, 2013|date=February 21, 2013|work=Times Higher Education}}{{cite web|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/art-and-design/2013/03/bratatat-lichtenstein-hits-tate-modern|title=BRATATAT! Lichtenstein hits the Tate Modern|access-date=June 23, 2013|date=March 1, 2013|work=New Statesman|author=Simmonds, Charlotte}}

The work addresses Lichtenstein's motif of monocularity by pitting the pilot's binocular vision against the technologically advanced monocular computing reflector gun sight.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yHv5QTPxOccC&q=%22Okay+Hot-Shot%22+Lichtenstein&pg=PA95|title=Image Duplicator: Roy Lichtenstein and the Emergence of Pop Art|access-date=June 23, 2013|isbn=0300087624|page=99|publisher=Yale University Press|author=Lobel, Michael|year=2002}} The Washingtonian's critic Sophie Gilbert regards Bratatat! (along with Takka Takka) as exemplary of Lichtenstein's "aggressive, hyper-masculine war paintings" because of its depiction of the guns creating sound effects and the use of onomatopoeic words during military conflict.{{cite web|url=http://www.washingtonian.com/blogs/afterhours/art/art-preview-roy-lichtenstein-a-retrospective-at-the-national-gallery-of-art.php|title=Art Preview: "Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective" at the National Gallery of Art|access-date=June 23, 2013|date=October 11, 2012|work=The Washingtonian|author=Gilbert, Sophie}} Dramatic close-ups of male protagonists at war, such as Bratatat! and Torpedo...Los!, serve as counterpoints to Lichtenstein's women in clichéd romantic turmoil during highly-charged moments.{{cite web|url=http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/exhibitions/Lichtenstein/themes/War-Romance|title=War and Romance|access-date=June 23, 2013|publisher=Art Institute of Chicago}}{{cite web|url=http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/press/exh/3287.html|title=Roy Lichtenstein Retrospective On View at National Gallery of Art, Washington: October 14, 2012–January 13, 2013|access-date=June 23, 2013|publisher=National Gallery of Art}} The work also is related to Lichtenstein's theme of "machine and embodied vision" as exhibited in works such as Crak!, Okay Hot-Shot, Okay!, and Jet Pilot.{{cite book|title=Roy Lichtenstein|editor=Bader, Graham|publisher=MIT Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-262-01258-4|chapter=Technology Envisioned: Lichtenstein's Monocularity|author=Lobel, Michael|pages=118–20}}

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• 1963 in art

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• [http://image-duplicator.com/main.php?work_id=0280&year=1962&decade=60 Lichtenstein Foundation website]

{{Roy Lichtenstein}}

Category:1963 paintings

Category:20th-century portraits

Category:Aviation art

Category:Military art

Category:Paintings by Roy Lichtenstein

Category:Portraits by American artists

Category:Works based on DC Comics