Art Analysis Of Roy Lichtenstein's 'WHAAM !'

Pop art era originated in New York during the mid-1950s and ended in the early 1970s. It focused on familiar places in citizen’s day to day life, creating commercial images and during this time Pop art boomed because of the media World War II was receiving. Roy Lichtenstein’s painting “WHAAM!” would mostly fall under the category of the Pop art era for the reasons being that it is based on an image from a DC comic “All American Man of War” which was published by DC comics in 1962. Lichtenstein presented a powerfully charged scene in an impersonal manner, leaving the viewer to decipher the meaning for themselves. The painting is in a comic style of art (Pop Art) and depicts two fighter jets (one owned by the United States the other owned by the Soviet Union) in the air with one shooting a missile towards the other jet with a humongous “WHAAM!” giving the painting a cartoon feel by emphasizing the onomatopoeic lettering in a yellow box, showing that the plane has blown up.

This painting includes warm colors such as a vibrant red and yellow as well as neutral colors like gray, white, and black. Lichtenstein’s colors and the use of natural colors are very predominant in his work of art. He uses a sense of contrast between dull and vibrant colors to emphasize the importance of what’s going on and where the focal point is. He shows his focal areas with warm colors such as the vibrant yellows and reds. Then for the other parts of his art, he uses the absence of colors so that