Modern Head 3, 1970: Linecut and embossing on paper

  • Roy Lichtenstein *Modern Head #3* (1970), featuring a highly abstract geometric face formed by white intersecting lines on a black background with a circular eye and curved mouth.
    Modern Head #3, 1970
    Linecut with embossing on handmade Waterleaf paper, sheet: 61 x 46 cm (irregular)
    Edition of 100; plus 7 AP, 1 RTP, 1 PPII, 3 GEL, 1 C, 1 SP
    ©The Estate of Roy Lichtenstein
     
    BACK TO: MODERN HEAD SERIES
     
    Modern Head #3, 1970, presents a highly reduced, linear construction of the human face, built entirely from intersecting white lines against a dense black ground. The features are fragmented and abstracted, with a circular eye, curved mouth, and angular divisions forming a composition that feels closer to a schematic than a portrait. The image is segmented by diagonal and vertical lines, creating a sense of structure and rhythm, while small areas of pattern introduce subtle variation within the otherwise stark composition. The result is a precise, graphic image where the head is assembled through line rather than mass.
     
    Produced as a linecut with embossing on handmade Waterleaf paper, the work forms part of Lichtenstein’s Modern Head series. Drawing on the influence of Jawlensky but pushing further into abstraction, Lichtenstein removes all expressive qualities and instead treats the face as a system of repeatable forms. The emphasis on line, structure, and reduction aligns the work with the machine aesthetics of Constructivism and early modernism, reinforcing his interest in how the human figure can be translated into a controlled, industrial visual language.
  • ""I use colour in the same way as line. I want it oversimplified" 
     
    - Roy Lichtenstein

    Lichtenstein pushes the reduction of the human face to its limits, stripping it down to a network of essential lines and geometric relationships. Features are no longer modelled or expressive, but indicated through minimal curves and intersections, turning the face into a schematic structure rather than a likeness. This process removes individuality and emotion, replacing them with clarity and order, and reinforces his interest in presenting the human form as something constructed, standardised, and aligned with the logic of design and industrial production.