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Look Mickey is a 1961 oil on canvas painting by Roy Lichtenstein. Based on an illustration showing Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck during a fishing mishap, it is widely regarded as the bridge between his abstract expressionism and pop art works. It is notable for its ironic humor and aesthetic value as well as being the first example of the artist's employment of Ben-Day dots, speech balloons and comic imagery as a source for a painting. Building on his late 1950s drawings of comic strips characters, Look Mickey marks Lichtenstein's first full employment of painterly techniques to reproduce almost faithful representations of pop culture and so satirize and comment upon the then developing process of mass production of visual imagery. In this, Lichtenstein pioneered a motif that became influential not only in 1960s Pop art but continuing to the work of artists today. The work dates from Lichtenstein's first solo exhibition, and is regarded by art critics as revolutionary both as a progression of pop art and as a work of modern art in general. It was later shown hanging prominently in Lichtenstein's studio in his 1973 painting, Artist's Studio—Look Mickey.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Look_Mickey
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1862:
American Civil War: The Confederate Army began an attempt to gain control of the Southwest with a major victory in the Battle of Valverde. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Valverde
1918:
The Carolina Parakeet (pictured), the only parrot species native to the eastern United States, became extinct when the last individual died in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_Parakeet
1921:
Rezā Khan seized Tehran to make himself the most powerful person in Iran, which eventually led to the establishment of the Pahlavi dynasty. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_events_of_1921
1965:
Black nationalist Malcolm X was assassinated while giving a speech in New York City's Audubon Ballroom. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X
1973:
After accidentally having strayed into Israeli airspace, Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 was shot down by two Israeli fighter planes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libyan_Arab_Airlines_Flight_114
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
jump the shark: 1. (idiomatic, of a television program or other narrative) To undergo a storyline development which heralds a fundamental and generally disappointing change in direction. 2. (more generally) To experience a decline in quality, appeal, popularity, etc. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jump_the_shark
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Follow, poet, follow right To the bottom of the night, With your unconstraining voice Still persuade us to rejoice; With the farming of a verse Make a vineyard of the curse, Sing of human unsuccess In a rapture of distress; In the deserts of the heart Let the healing fountains start, In the prison of his days Teach the free man how to praise. --W. H. Auden https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/W._H._Auden