It's hard not to look at this show and immediately view it as the entrant in a horse race. Lichtenstein is behind by a few lengths, challenged hard by the immeasurably skilled painter James Rosenquist, whose stalled career could be in for a revival as art returns to its long-dying love affair with painting. (Some of the best works in Brooklyn Museum of Art's maligned Sensation were by painters like Fiona Rae and Richard Patterson, whose deft image collages--Rae--and glamorous hyperrealism --Patterson--seem to have roots in Rosenquist, among other artists. ) Lichtenstein splits the difference between those two pop painters. His painting is, technically, highly accomplished, even as he hides most evidence of his handiwork. |