Mirrors 3, 1972: Linecut and screenprint by Lichtenstein

  • Roy Lichtenstein Mirror #3 (1972), circular abstract print with blue half-disc and black Ben-Day dot pattern suggesting a reflective surface.
    Mirror #3, 1972
    Linecut and screenprint with embossing on Arjomari paper, sheet: 70.9 x 70.8 cm
    Edition of 80; plus 10 AP, 1 RTP, 1 PPII, 3 GEL, 1 C
    ©The Estate of Roy Lichtenstein
     
    BACK TO: MIRROR SERIES
     
    Mirror #3, 1972, continues Roy Lichtenstein’s investigation into the idea of reflection through abstraction, presenting a circular composition divided between a flat field of saturated blue and a halftone surface of black Ben-Day dots. The image evokes the visual logic of a mirror, yet offers no literal reflection. Instead, Lichtenstein constructs the illusion of surface and depth through contrast, density, and sharp graphic boundaries, encouraging the viewer to read the image as reflective despite its complete detachment from realism.
     
    The work exemplifies Lichtenstein’s interest in how meaning is generated through visual codes rather than material truth. Using linecut, screenprint, and embossing, he creates a crisp, machined finish that reinforces the artificiality of the image. The stark division between colour and dot pattern suggests shifts in light and surface, mimicking reflective qualities without replicating them. In doing so, Mirror #3 becomes a conceptual exploration of perception, demonstrating how something as familiar as a mirror can be reduced to a highly stylised and symbolic form.

  • "Everybody has called Pop Art 'American' painting, but it's actually industrial painting." 

    - Roy Lichtenstein

    Lichtenstein approached reflections not as optical realities but as visual problems to be solved through design. He was less interested in what a mirror actually shows and more in how the idea of reflection can be communicated through a set of recognisable graphic cues. By stripping away detail and relying on dots, lines, and simplified colour fields, he reduces reflection to a coded language shaped by printing processes and visual conventions.