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Live Ammo (Ha! Ha! Ha!)

Artist Roy Lichtenstein (American, 1923 - 1997)

Date1962

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 68 x 68 in. (172.7 x 172.7 cm)
Overall, Frame: 68 1/2 x 68 1/2 in. (174 x 174 cm)

ClassificationsModern art

Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number71.676

Terms

Collections

Modern and Contemporary

On View

Not on view

DescriptionThis is an oil on canvas painting. It has a background comprised of Ben Day Dots, in this case uniformly spaced red dots; on the left side of the painting a P-51 Mustang fighter airplane (WWII era) blasts upward. Coming from the flight deck of the fighter plane, a balloon reads "HA! HA! HA!". The underside of the fighter plane is blue; the split rudder on the vertical tail has horizontal red and white stripes.

Label TextRoy Lichtenstein American, 1923–1997 Live Ammo (Ha! Ha! Ha!), 1962 Oil on canvas I am anti-experimental, and anti-contemplative, anti-nuance, anti-getting-away-from-the-tyranny-of-the-rectangle, anti-movement-and-light, anti-mystery, anti-paint-quality, anti-Zen, and anti all of those brilliant ideas of preceding movements which everyone understands so thoroughly. –Roy Lichtenstein A World War II fighter plane blasts upwards in the sky, the pilot cackling from the cockpit. The highly charged, emotional subject matter is at odds with Roy Lichtenstein’s impersonal techniques—the flat colors, strong graphics, and Ben-Day dots he borrows from comic books. The result is an “action painting,” but one entirely at odds with the raw, improvisational “action paintings” found in the previous gallery. In addition to the ironic commentary he makes about Abstract Expressionism, Lichtenstein subtly critiques the escalating violence seen during the United State’s involvement in Vietnam. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.676