Rain Forest
from Columbus – In Search of a New Tomorrow

Medium: Screen-print in colors on Fabriano wove paper
Year: 1992
Image: 25 5/8 x 21 3/8 inches (65.1 x 54.3 cm)
Sheet: 29 7/8 x 22 3/4 inches (75.9 x 57.8 cm)
Edition: 100
Artist’s Proofs: 66 AP
Printer & Publisher: Edition Domberger, Stuttgart
Literature: Corlett 278, RLCR 4149

Rain Forest, 1992 (RLCR 4149) | Catalogue entry | Roy Lichtenstein: A Catalogue Raisonné

Signed, dated and numbered in pencil, with the Columbus portfolio blindstamp

This portfolio was initiated by Artists United for Nature, Munich, and Edition Domberger, Filderstadt (under the patronage of His Majesty King Juan Carlos of Spain and Documenta IX). Bringing together artists, musicians, photographers, poets, and others, the project was to raise funds and awareness of the need for the preservation of the world’s tropical rain forests.

The portfolio consists of works by Elvira Bach, Joseph Beuys, Max Bill, Sandro Chia, Eduardo Chillida, Christo, Hanne Darboven, Peter Arthur Hutchinson, Ilya Kabakov, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Longo, Robert Mangold, Haralampi G. Oroschakoff, Claus-Otto Paeffgen, Nam June Paik, Mimmo Paladino, Suzan Pitt, Sigmar Polke, Andrej Rojter, Kenny Scharf, J. Raphael Soto, and Antonio Tàpies. Also included are works by Joe Cocker, Bryan Ferry, Enoch zu Guttenberg, Ira Kaingang, Robert Glenn Ketchum, Mario Vargas Llosa, Bernard Matemera, Joe Nalo, Werner Pawlok, Jean Remlinger, Jan Peter Tripp, Tomi Ungerer, Peter Ustinov, and Raymond E. Waydelich.

The complete collection includes 27 prints, 1 small sculpture, 2 compact discs (pop music), 1 double compact disc (classical music), 2 literary texts, and 1 hardbound book. Each work on paper is protected inside the portfolio by a white wove paper folder with project logo, artist’s name, and [Edition Domberger/Artists United for Nature e.V.] printed on the front.

An unauthorized poster was also made of the image, but all copies retained by the publisher have been destroyed.

Rain Forest presents a stylized tree occupying the center of the image, its pale, almost flattened trunk branching upward into a dense canopy of green foliage. The leaves are rendered in irregular, textured clusters, contrasting with the strict visual system that structures the rest of the work. Behind the tree, a field of vivid blue Benday dots forms the sky, while the ground is defined by diagonal green stripes that slope gently upward, creating a simplified, almost decorative landscape. The tree itself is outlined in thick black contours, its sinuous branches twisting in an elegant, controlled rhythm. There is no depth in the traditional sense: no atmospheric perspective, no illusion of space. Instead, the image is constructed as a series of layered patterns. The result is not a naturalistic landscape, but a constructed vision of nature, filtered through Lichtenstein’s visual vocabulary.

Rain Forest exemplifies Lichtenstein’s late mastery of printmaking. The work juxtaposes different systems of mark-making: the mechanical regularity of Benday dots in the sky, the rigid diagonal striping of the ground, and the more irregular, almost sponge-like application used to render the foliage. This contrast is essential. While the dots and stripes evoke industrial printing processes, the leaves introduce a simulated sense of organic variation. Yet even this apparent spontaneity is controlled. The foliage is not expressive in the traditional painterly sense: it is patterned, repeated, and contained within a clearly defined structure. Lichtenstein does not abandon his language here; he expands it. The surface becomes a site of tension between the mechanical and the organic, the calculated and the seemingly natural.

At first glance, Rain Forest suggests calm and harmony. The tree stands firmly, the composition is balanced, and the palette is vibrant yet controlled. Yet this serenity is constructed. Lichtenstein is not depicting nature as an experience; he is presenting nature as a system of signs. The sky is reduced to dots, the ground to stripes, the foliage to textured patches. Each element is a code, a visual shorthand rather than a direct observation. The work subtly questions the idea of the “natural.” What we perceive as organic is, in fact, mediated—translated into patterns that can be reproduced, manipulated, and standardized. Even the irregularity of the leaves feels designed. In this sense, Rain Forest is less about landscape than about the impossibility of accessing nature outside of representation. It is a landscape after reproduction.

Auction Results

Christie’s New-York: 16 April 2021
Estimated: USD 15,000 – 20,000
USD 27,500

ROY LICHTENSTEIN (1923-1997)
Rain Forest, from Columbus – In Search of a New Tomorrow, 1992
Screen-print in colors on Fabriano wove paper
Signed and dated in pencil, numbered 81/100

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Christie’s London: 18 March 2020
Estimated: GBP 12,000 – 18,000
GBP 18,750 / USD 21,765

ROY LICHTENSTEIN (1923-1997)
Rain Forest, from: Columbus: In Search of a New Tomorrow, 1992
Screenprint in colors on Fabriano paper
Signed and dated in pencil, numbered 28/100

XXXXXXXXXX

Sotheby’s London: 17 September 2019
Estimated: GBP 12,000 – 18,000
GBP 16,250 / USD 20,315

ROY LICHTENSTEIN (1923 – 1997)
RAIN FOREST (C. 278), 1992
From Columbus: In Search of a New Tomorrow
Screenprint in colors on handmade Fabriano paper
Signed in pencil, dated, numbered 22/100