Hot Dot
Roy Lichtenstein
1962
22 x 36 inches, Oil on Canvas
Movement: Pop Art
Setting: Lichtenstein was strongly influenced by Andy Warhol's images that were embedded in commodity culture.
Technique: Here he is beginning to experiment with his mature "Ben Dots" style. He uses the technique of tight circles for the background and parts of the bun but contrasts that with the thick outlining and glistening painting of the dog itself. For this piece, Lichtenstein drew the image to almost an exact copy from an advertisement and then projected the image onto a canvas where he traced the image to further his message.
Analysis: Similar to Warhol, the image floats in space, more reminiscent of a logo than the food itself. Where Lichtenstein pulls away form Warhol's imagery is that he does not try and embody the realism and trompe l'oeil quality that Warhol attains. The meat glistens in a cartoon like way, it is the ideal image of a hot dog yet inedible - the allure is stripped from the advertisement that it emulates. In this way, Lichtenstein is replicating Jasper Johns' ideals from his Flag series where he provides the minimal amount of detail to signify the image he is copying while he toys with the rest of it; this is not a real hot dog, just a symbol of it. The result of his work is a hotdog that is cold, and far way - it captures the large, brash quality of the industrial world and the mechanization of advertisements without interacting with the viewer.
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