Roy Lichtenstein’s Mirror Series, 1972, forms part of a sustained exploration of mirrors that dominated his work from the late 1960s to the mid 1970s. Across paintings, prints and later sculpture, Lichtenstein reduced the mirror to a stylised, graphic motif. The Gemini G.E.L. series comprises nine prints and demonstrates his ongoing interest in reflection, illusion and the tension between surface and depth.
The series combines lithography, screenprint, line-cut and embossing, with Mirror #1 incorporating silver foil collage to heighten the suggestion of reflection. Lichtenstein emphasised the artificiality of the image, noting that the works only read as mirrors once identified as such. Stripped of realism yet presented with graphic precision, the Mirrors stand as a conceptual investigation into representation itself.
