Roy Lichtenstein "Portable Radio" at SF MoMA

One of the thrills of museum-going is coming across atypical or unknown (to me anyway) pieces by well-known artists. At the SF MoMA in 2016, I ran into this lovely piece by Pop Art old master Roy Lichtenstein.

It’s called “Portable Radio” and is from 1962. From the museum’s description:

Oil on canvas with aluminum and leather.

This work belongs to a group of paintings of common objects drawn from advertisements and commercial catalogues, prime source material for Pop artists. Like Tire, also on view in this gallery, Portable Radio renders its subject in black and white—but it is distinguished by its incorporation of nontraditional materials. The aluminum stripping and leather handle blur the line between then painting and the object it depicts, emphasizing that a painting is itself an object. At the same time,. the schematic rendering of the radio’s component parts cleverly underscores its lack of functionality.

I love the sculptural, flattened three-dimensionality (it’s framed in a shadow box, those are the object’s shadows—not trompe l'oeil) and the creamy luxe look.

There’s also an interesting play of ideas. Miniaturization of components and the introduction of transistors instead of tubes liberated radio from bulky cabinets and made it mobile for the first time. Portable radios, the first portable audio technology, were brand new in 1962. Very modern, the portable radio would be a great subject (and object) for an homage and the Pop Art treatment.