‘The Hardest Kind of Archetype’: Reflections on Roy Lichetenstein: The Watson Gordon Lecture 2010

Established following the 125th anniversary of the Chair of Fine Art at the University of Edinburgh and named after the painter Sir John Watson Gordon, the Watson Gordon Lectures Typify the long-standing positive collaboration between the University of Edinburgh and the National Galleries of Scotland: two partners in the Visual Arts Research Institute in Edinburgh. The fifth lecture was given by Hal Foster of Princeton University. Professor Foster is an acknowledged expert on modernist art and architecture, and has a particular fascination with Pop art. His wide-ranging lecture on Roy Lichtenstein is a gripping engagement with the multiple aspects of the artist’s work: the conjunctions of art and technology, the satirical playing with previous modernist styles, and the sinister background of the military-industrial complex.