Cubist Cello
Medium: Screenprint in colors on Somerset textured paper
Year: 1997-1998
Image: 40 7/8 x 30 5/8 inches (103.8 x 77.7 cm)
Sheet: 50 7/8 x 39 5/8 inches (129.7 x 100.9 cm)
Edition: 75
Artist’s Proofs: 25
Other Editions: 15 proofs numbered in Roman numerals
Publishers: The Estate of Roy Lichtenstein and Noblet Serigraphie, Inc., for the benefit of the American Friends of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art
Literature: Corlett 311
Roy Lichtenstein Catalogue Raisonne: RLCR 4752
Signed in pencil by Dorothy Lichtenstein with the inkstamp of the publishers
This print was executed to support the Roy Lichtenstein Study Center for Contemporary Art at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Work was in the final proofing stages at the time of the artist’s death. The BAT was approved by the artist’s estate, and the edition bears the stamp of the estate and the signature of Dorothy Lichtenstein, the artist’s widow.
Cubist Cello is a complex work that merges Roy Lichtenstein’s signature Pop Art style with the fragmentation of Cubism. Lichtenstein produced two well-known versions: a 1974 study on canvas and a large-scale screenprint in 1997, the year of his death. The piece serves as both an homage to and a subversion of art history, translating a traditional subject, a musical instrument, into a modern visual language.
The colorful and dynamic composition features a central, hovering cello. The imagery is a combination of abstract geometric shapes, fragmented body parts, and nods to earlier periods in the artist’s work. The cello is depicted in a soft pastel color, broken into angular, overlapping forms. Its traditional shape is still recognizable but is deconstructed in a manner that recalls the analytic Cubism of Pablo Picasso. Thick, bold black outlines define every shape, and large-scale Ben-Day dots—Lichtenstein’s trademark—fill the spaces, creating a flat, mechanical, and mass-produced appearance. The background is a chaotic but cohesive “illustrated collage” featuring a patchwork of abstract forms and self-referential elements. A cartoon heroine from his 1960s work, as well as parts of bulls from his 1970s Bulls series, are integrated into the composition. The entire image is layered, with figurative details peeking out from behind the cello’s curved body.
The piece explores Lichtenstein’s lifelong fascination with music and his continuous engagement with art history. It serves as an exploration and reinterpretation of how an art movement’s style and techniques can be translated into a different medium and aesthetic. By recreating a Cubist-style image with the mechanical, impersonal language of commercial printing, Lichtenstein critiques the very ideas of originality and authenticity. He deliberately applies mechanical techniques to a subject, the cello, that represents the emotional, creative output of music.
This work is a prime example of Lichtenstein’s “art about art” approach. It references not only Cubism but also his own past work and the commercial aesthetics he so famously co-opted. The incorporation of his past subjects into the new composition makes it a kind of retrospective self-portrait. Lichtenstein transforms the intimate and emotionally expressive subject of the cello into a depersonalized, detached, and flat image. This tests the audience’s perception of art by showing how different aesthetic approaches can change the way we see and understand a subject.
Auction Results
Estimated: USD 15,000 – 25,000
USD 30,960
Cubist Cello, 1997
Screenprint in colors on Somerset paper
Dated ’98’ numbered ‘AP 25/25’ in pencil
(an artist’s proof, the edition was 75)
Published by the Estate of Roy Lichtenstein
Christie’s New-York: 25 October 2024
Estimated: USD 15,000 – 25,000
USD 25,200
ROY LICHTENSTEIN (1923-1997)
Cubist Cello (Corlett 311), 1997
Screenprint in colors on Somerset paper
Signed and dated ’98’ in pencil by Dorothy Lichtenstein
Numbered 45⁄75 (there were also 25 artist’s proofs)
Christie’s New-York: 28 October 2023
Estimated: USD 15,000 – 25,000
USD 25,200
ROY LICHTENSTEIN (1923-1997)
Cubist Cello, 1997
Screenprint in colors on Somerset paper
Signed and dated ’98’ in pencil by Dorothy Lichtenstein, numbered 10⁄75
Wright: 8 August 2023
Estimated: USD 12,000 – 15,000
USD 13,860
ROY LICHTENSTEIN (1923–1997)
Cubist Cello, 1997/1998
Screen-print in colors on Somerset textured
Estate stamp to lower right
This work is a proof apart from the edition of 75
Bonhams New-York: 9 May 2023
Estimated: USD 10,000 – 15,000
USD 12,750
Screen-print in colors on Somerset textured paper
A proof (aside from the edition of 75)
With the screened inkstamp of the Estate of Roy Lichtenstein
And the inkstamp and signature in pencil of the printer Noblet Serigraphie, Inc., New York
Van Ham: 30 November 2022
Estimated: EUR 15,000
EUR 34,320
Screen-print in colors on Somerset textured paper
A proof (aside from the edition of 75)
An Artist’s Proof numbered 22/25
Sotheby’s New-York: 28 October 2022
Estimated: USD 18,000 – 25,000
USD 37,800
ROY LICHTENSTEIN (1923 – 1997)
Cubist Cello, 1997-1998
Screenprint in colors on Somerset textured paper
Signed in pencil by Dorothy Lichtenstein, dated and inscribed X/XV
This impression is one of 15 proofs in Roman numerals
Aside from the numbered edition of 75 plus 25 artist’s proofs in Arabic numerals