Three-screen 35mm silent film installation, 1 minute looped
<span class="gray">Each screen (at first screening in Osaka):</span> 84 x 132 in. (213.4 x 335.3 cm)
Classification: other work

Other Work on Paper

Grouped here are works on paper and a Rowlux piece that do not fall into this catalogue's other classifications of artworks or are considered sentimental gestures.

Read more: Guide to the Catalogue
Print this page

Catalogue entry

Artwork: Three Landscapes, 1970–71 (RLCR 1922) Photo: Courtesy Whitney Museum of American Art Installation at 2011 Whitney exhibition
Installation at 2011 Whitney exhibition
RLCR 1922 (RL 4021)
Three Landscapes
1970–71
Title Source
RLF
Alternate titles and sources: Film – Untitled (RL Studio Card); Film – Untitled (LACMA's Art and Technology Project) (RLF)
Media
Three-screen 35mm silent film installation, 1 minute looped
Dimensions
Each screen (at first screening in Osaka): 84 x 132 in. (213.4 x 335.3 cm)
Remarks

In 1968, Roy Lichtenstein was invited by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) to participate in their experimental Art and Technology program. Curated by Maurice Tuchman, the project placed artists-in-residence with leading California-based industries and exhibited the results of their collaborations. Some of the visiting artists included Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Robert Whitman, and Lichtenstein.

In February 1969, Lichtenstein spent two weeks in residence at Universal Studios in Los Angeles. After touring Universal's film laboratories and special effects facilities he decided to make film loops of sky and water, projected on several screens in the gallery. Returning to New York, he filmed on Long Island, primarily in Montauk, working with independent filmmaker Joel Freedman. The resulting one-minute film loops collage footage of the sea and a tropical fish tank with a static Benday-dot pattern and still images of a blue sky, clouds and a seagull. 

Of the originally planned fifteen or so film loops only four were completed, three of them were shown in different combinations. 

The four known loops are (numbered randomly): 

  1. Birds over Dots
  2. Dots over Water
  3. Sky with Clouds over Tropical Fish in Tank
  4. Bird over Water

Title Three Landscapes per a letter of recommendation by the artist for Joel Freedman, dated April 25, 1969 (RLF Archives). Dates reflect the premieres at the two 1970b Osaka Expo venues. Two screens (loops 1 and 2) were shown in Osaka, three screens (loops 1, 2 and 3) in Los Angeles.

Photo: Courtesy Whitney Museum of American Art
Research Images
Three Landscapes, 1970–71 (RLCR 1922). Loop 1: Birds over Dots
Loop 1: Birds over Dots
Photo: Krämer, Faass, and Gassner 2007
Three Landscapes, 1970–71 (RLCR 1922). Loop 2: Dots over Water
Loop 2: Dots over Water
Three Landscapes, 1970–71 (RLCR 1922). Loop 3: Sky with Clouds over Tropical Fish in Tank
Loop 3: Sky with Clouds over Tropical Fish in Tank
Three Landscapes, 1970–71 (RLCR 1922). Loop 4: Bird over Water
Loop 4: Bird over Water
Related Works
loading
Exhibitions
Osaka Expo, United States Pavilion, Osaka, Japan, The New Arts in Japan World Exposition, Expo '70, March 15–September 13, 1970. (loops 1 and 2 in Osaka; loops 1–3 in Los Angeles). Traveled to: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, May 10–August 29, 1971 (as Art and Technology) (Tuchman, M. 1971a, fig. 3 p. 198 b/w ill. [loops 2 and 4]).
NTT InterCommunication Center, Tokyo Opera City Tower, Tokyo, E.A.T.: The Story of Experiments in Art and Technology, April 11–June 29, 2003. (loops 2 and 4 shown).
Museo de Arte Abstracto Español, Cuenca, Spain, Lichtenstein: En proceso, November 25, 2005–February 19, 2006 (only Madrid, Paris; loops 2 and 4 shown) (Fundación Juan March 2005b). Traveled to: Museu d'Art Espanyol Contemporani, Palma de Mallorca, Spain, March 7–September 9, 2006; Fundación Juan March, Madrid, February 2–May 27, 2007 (as Roy Lichtenstein: De principio a fin, revised and expanded) (Fundación Juan March 2007a); (Fundación Juan March 2007b); Pinacothèque de Paris, Paris, June 15–September 23, 2007 (as Roy Lichtenstein: Évolution, revised and expanded) (Fundación Juan March 2007c); Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, New York, March 29–June 28, 2009 (revised and abridged) (Katonah Museum 2009); Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, Tennessee, October 18, 2009–January 17, 2010 (revised and abridged) (Katonah Museum 2009); Frederick Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University, Malibu, California, January 22–April 3, 2011 (Katonah Museum 2009) (ed. 1921.1/1).
Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany, Seestücke: Von Max Beckmann bis Gerhard Richter, June 8–September 16, 2007 (loops 2 and 4 shown) (Krämer, F, Faass, and Gassner 2007, no. 69 p. 101 color ill. [as Untitled [Seascape films]; loops 1–4]).
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Three Landscapes: A Film Installation by Roy Lichtenstein, October 6, 2011–February 12, 2012. (loops 2–4 shown) (ed. 1921.1/1).
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective, May 16–September 3, 2012 (only Chicago, London; loops 2–4 shown) (Rondeau and Wagstaff, Sheena 2012). Traveled to: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., October 14, 2012–January 13, 2013; Tate Modern, London, February 21–May 27, 2013 (as Lichtenstein: A Retrospective) (Dunne 2012); Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre National d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou, Paris, July 3–November 4, 2013 (as Roy Lichtenstein, revised and reorganized) (Dunne 2013); (Pompidou 2013); (Morineau 2013a) (ed. 1921.1/1).
Guild Hall, East Hampton, New York, Roy Lichtenstein: Between Sea and Sky, August 8–October 12, 2015 (loops 2 and 4 shown) (Guild Hall 2015) (ed. 1921.AP).
Literature
Klüver, Billy. "Interazioni fra arte e tecnologia." In Enciclopedia della scienza e della tecnica. Milan: Arnoldo Mondadori Editori, 1971, p. 480 ill. (loop 3).
Livingston, Jane. "Some Thoughts on ‘Art and Technology.'" Studio International 181, no. 934 (June 1971), no. 2 p. 259 b/w ill. (as Untitled; loop 2 and loop 4).
Burnham, Jack. "Corporate Art." Artforum 10, no. 2 (October 1971), p. 69 not ill.
Hoberman, J. "Pop Art Movement: On Roy Lichtenstein's Three Landscapes." Village Voice (New York), October 26, 2011, p. 1 ill. (loops 2–4).
Entry Updated November 14, 2023