Girl in Mirror

Girl in Mirror uses Ben-Day dots like many of his other works, but it was inspired by the hard reflective finish of signs in the New York City Subway system and, in turn, they inspired his subsequent ceramic head works. Enamel facilitated a more mechanical appearance than even his paintings while remaining in two dimensions.{{cite book|title=Roy Lichtenstein: Reflections|author=Waldman, Diane|publisher=Electa|year=1999|isbn=88-435-7287-3|page=29|quote=Between 1963 and 1965, Lichtenstein produced a group of works in enamel, such as Girl in Mirror, 1964 (cat. 45). The subway signs he saw in New York inspired the hard finish and reflective surface. With the hard, slick enamel, Lichtenstein accomplished two objectives: he was able to move closer to achieving the look of mechanical perfection that he could only suggest in paintings of the period, and he reinforced the role of the two-dimensional image as an object. Girl in Mirror helped inspire a series of ceramic heads, which he began in 1965.}} After 1963, Lichtenstein's comics-based women "... look hard, crisp, brittle, and uniformly modish in appearance, as if they all came out of the same pot of makeup." This particular example is one of several that is cropped so closely that the hair flows beyond the edges of the canvas.{{cite book|title=Roy Lichtenstein|publisher=Praeger Publishers|editor=Coplans, John|page=23|chapter=Introduction, Biographical Notes, Chronology of Imagery and Art|year=1972|quote=Very often a head is cropped to such an extent that the hair flows outside the borders of the format ...}}

One edition of this painting was the subject of a legal dispute involving 2009 sale without consent. Another edition of this work sold at auction at Christie's (New York, Rockefeller Plaza ) Post-War and Contemporary Evening Sale for $4,898,500 (premium) on November 10, 2010 although it was only expected to sell in the $3–4 million range.{{cite web|url=http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5371730|title=Roy Lichtenstein (1923–1997): Girl in Mirror|access-date=May 10, 2012|date=November 10, 2010|publisher=Christie's}} Girl in Mirror exists in eight editions according to most, however, "Clare Bell of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation said that inventory records for the Leo Castelli Gallery, where Lichtenstein showed in the 1960s, say that there may be 10 versions of the work, some of them original proofs".{{cite web|url=http://www.galleristny.com/2012/01/new-gagosian-lawsuit-alleges-lichtenstein-switcheroo/|title=New Gagosian Lawsuit Alleges Lichtenstein Switcheroo|access-date=May 10, 2012|date=January 24, 2012|work=GalleristNY|publisher=The New York Observer|author=Duray, Dan}} One edition exhibited at the Gagosian Gallery in New York in 2008.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/06/10/arts/20080611_ROY_SLIDESHOW_2.html|title=Roy Lichtenstein at Gagosian|access-date=May 10, 2012|date=June 10, 2008|work=The New York Times}} There had been three previous auction sales of this work: May 5, 1986 at Sotheby's New York for $ 100,000 USD (hammer),{{cite web|url=http://artsalesindex.artinfo.com/asi/lots/1348486|title=Roy Lichtenstein (American, 1923–1997): Girl in mirror|access-date=May 15, 2012|work=Blouin Art Sales Index}}{{Dead link|date=December 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} May 4, 1987 at Sotheby's New York for $150,000 USD (hammer),{{cite web|url=http://artsalesindex.artinfo.com/asi/lots/1423310|title=Roy Lichtenstein (American, 1923–1997): Girl in mirror|access-date=May 15, 2012|work=Blouin Art Sales Index}}{{Dead link|date=December 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} and May 15, 2007 Sotheby's New York for $3,600,000 (hammer)/$4,072,000 (premium).{{cite web|url=http://www.sothebys.com/en/catalogues/ecatalogue.html/2007/contemporary-art-evening-sale-n08317#/r=/en/ecat.fhtml.N08317.html+r.m=/en/ecat.lot.N08317.html/20/|title=Contemporary Art Evening Sale: New York – 15 May 2007 07:00 PM N08317|access-date=May 15, 2012|publisher=Sotheby's|archive-date=April 7, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407141612/http://www.sothebys.com/en/catalogues/ecatalogue.html/2007/contemporary-art-evening-sale-n08317#/r=/en/ecat.fhtml.N08317.html+r.m=/en/ecat.lot.N08317.html/20/|url-status=dead}}

On January 18, 2012, a suit was filed in Manhattan in New York State Court in a case related to two earlier federal cases.{{cite web|url=http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/19/gagosian-sued-for-selling-lichtenstein-painting-without-owners-consent/|title=Gagosian Sued for Selling Lichtenstein Painting Without Owner's Consent|access-date=May 10, 2012|date=January 19, 2012|work=The New York Times|author=Kennedy, Randy}} The suit alleges both lack of consent and fraudulent misrepresentation of the painting's condition. The suit was for $14 million, including $10 million in punitive damages. 93-year-old Jan Cowles claims that in 2008 her son, New York art dealer Charles Cowles, transferred a version of Girl in Mirror to Larry Gagosian for sale without her consent. The suit claims that Gagosian fraudulently claimed the painting was damaged and sold it between August and December 2009 for $2 million, while charging a $1 million commission, rather than sell at or above the $3 million low estimate for a negotiated commission of $500,000. As a result of the edition shown during the summer 2008 "Roy Lichtenstein: Girls" exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery, at one point the gallery was in possession of two editions of Girl in Mirror, one of which was damaged. The intake notes for the Cowles version indicate no damage and Gagosian's international marketing of the work was consistent with the undamaged condition.

The New York Times notes that this was an example of Lichtenstein's ability to "glorify the American woman by giving innocuous images of her generic concocted self and her roiling emotions such blazing formal power". Framing a small fragment of the image in the mirror serves an artistic purpose. "Extraordinary sections like ... linking the falling hair to the semi-reflected face of the girl in the mirror (Girl in the mirror, 1964) ... which cut up, analyse, and unite, all have the one aim of intensifying the signifying fragment."{{cite book|title=Lichtenstein|editor=Boatto, Alberto and Giordano Falzoni|edition=International|publisher=Fantazaria|page=56}}

• 1964 in art

{{reflist|30em}}

• [http://image-duplicator.com/main.php?work_id=0249&year=1964&decade=60 Lichtenstein Foundation website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170828063238/http://image-duplicator.com/main.php?work_id=0249&year=1964&decade=60 |date=August 28, 2017 }}
• [https://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/06/10/arts/20080611_ROY_SLIDESHOW_2.html Gagosian Gallery Exhibition website]

{{Roy Lichtenstein}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Girl in Mirror}}

Category:1964 paintings

Category:Paintings by Roy Lichtenstein

Category:Mirrors in art