2601:646:4080:4B80:509F:CDDE:E3A8:C330: Added name of original comic artist (as shown in detail of already attached image)

2025-03-03T08:12:00Z

Added name of original comic artist (as shown in detail of already attached image)

New page

{{Short description|1964 painting by Roy Lichtenstein}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2016}}
{{Infobox Painting
| image_file=I Know...Brad.jpg
| backcolor=
| painting_alignment=
| image_size=250px
| title=I Know...Brad
| artist=[[Roy Lichtenstein]]
| year=1964
| movement=[[Pop art]]
| height_metric =
| width_metric =
| height_imperial = 68.5
| width_imperial = 37.75
| city=Aachen
| museum=[[Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst]]<ref name=Foundation>{{cite web|title=View In Museums – Roy Lichtenstein Foundation|url=http://lichtensteinfoundation.org/view-in-museums/|website=Roy Lichtenstein Foundation|access-date=3 January 2018}}</ref>
}}
'''''I Know...Brad''''' (sometimes '''''I Know How You Must Feel, Brad''''') is a 1964 [[pop art]] painting by [[Roy Lichtenstein]] that uses his classic [[Ben-Day dots]] and a [[speech balloon]]. The work is located at the [[Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst]]<ref name=Foundation/> in [[Aachen]]. It is an example of how Lichtenstein used his artistry to make significant changes to the original [[comics]] sources, in this case a panel by comic artist Ted Galino.

==Background==
Lichtenstein stated that the name Brad sounded heroic to him and was used with the aim of clichéd oversimplification.<ref>Coplans, p. 110.</ref>

==Background==
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| image1 = I Know...Brad source.jpg
| width1 = 158
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| caption1 = Source comic of this portrait

| image2 = Moitessier (Ingres, 1851) NGA.jpg
| width2 = 150
| alt2 =
| caption2 = [[Ellen H. Johnson]] says that ''I Know...Brad'' descends from [[Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres|Ingres]]' ''[[Portrait of Madame Moitessier]]''

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Measuring 174 cm × 95.9 cm (68.5 in × 37.75 in), ''I Know...Brad'' is considered an ironic depiction of emotional expression.<ref>{{cite book|title=Art Since 1960|edition=second|publisher=[[Thames & Hudson]]|author=Archer, Michael|isbn=0-500-20351-2|chapter=The Real and its Objects|year=2002|page=[https://archive.org/details/artsince196000arch/page/14 14]|quote=His paintings looked, at first glance as mechanically fashioned as their source material, although it is evident in a painting such as ''I Know How You Must Feel, Brad'' (1963) that the idea of art as an emotionally expressive activity is being ironically considered..|url=https://archive.org/details/artsince196000arch/page/14}}</ref> The work is a three-quarter-length, single image of a lovelorn girl.<ref>{{cite book|title=Roy Lichtenstein|editor=Coplans|page=41|quote=Generally, the earlier the imagery the less significant the degree of crop: ''Girl at Piano'' (1962) and ''I Know...Brad'' (1963) are both three-quarter-length, single images of lovelorn girls situated within different settings.}}</ref> This is one of Lichtenstein's post-1963 comics-based women that "...look hard, crisp, brittle, and uniformly modish in appearance, as if they all came out of the same pot of makeup."<ref>Coplans, p. 23.</ref>

==Details==
According to a reproduction of [[Ellen H. Johnson]]'s article entitled "Lichtenstein and the Printed Image" from ''[[Art and Artists]]'' (London, June 1966) the painting is somewhat removed from the original, while satirically mimicking several elements of it:

{{Quote|text=The slick black contours in ''I Know How You Must Feel, Brad'' wittily parody the crazy 'grace' of the pointed fingers, narrow wrist, swelling hips and breast and the flowing blonde hair of the comic. But for all the mannerism in Lichtenstein's American beauty (who numbers [[Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres|Ingres]]' ''[[Madame Moitessier]]'' among her ancestors), the total work is a powerful, commanding painting at least as far removed from the original comic as [[Seurat]]'s paintings are from [[Jules Chéret|Chéret]]'s posters.|sign=Sources|source=<ref name=LABGF>{{cite book|title=Lichtenstein|editor=Boatto, Alberto and Giordano Falzoni|edition=International|publisher=Fantazaria|page=108|quote=Eliminating inessentials, he dispenses with finger-nails and forearm muscle indications, cuts the number of lines throughout and more tellingly states and varies their curved or angular character. He changes the colours and gives them more force (from a dull red to a bright blue in the dress, from dirty yellow to brilliant gold in the hair), thus further idealising the ideal girl of the comics; he intensifies the range and contrast of values; makes the flabby landscape background into a jagged expressive pattern; transforms the vague rocket-like shape on the left into a neat vertical column...}}</ref>}}

Johnson notes how Lichtenstein transforms the comic inspiration not only by enlarging the scale, but he also by eliminating non-essential details such as fingernails and traces of forearm musculature. In addition, by varying and reducing the number of lines he presents a better depiction of their character. His color change makes the work more dynamic and the subject more idealized. He also makes the landscape background more robust.<ref name=LABGF/> Lichtenstein stated that the name Brad sounded heroic to him and was used with the aim of clichéd oversimplification.<ref>{{cite book|title=Roy Lichtenstein|editor=Coplans|page=110|quote=Well, I had the idea of 'The Hero' Brad. 'Brad' sounded like a hero to me, so all heroes were to be called Brad—a very minor idea, but it has to do with oversimplification and cliché.}}</ref> The work presents an "...unmistakeable acknowledgement to the flamboyant linearism of [[Art Nouveau]]...".<ref>{{cite book|title=An Illustrated History of Pop Art|author=Pierre, José|publisher=Eyre Methuen|isbn=0-413-38370-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/popartillustrate00pier/page/94 94]|year=1977|quote=...the three outstanding successes: ''I Know…Brad'', ''Hopeless'' and ''Drowning Girl'', in which we recognize an unmistakeable acknowledgement to the flamboyant linearism of Art Nouveau.|url=https://archive.org/details/popartillustrate00pier/page/94}}</ref>

{{clear}}

==See also==
* [[1964 in art]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|30em}}

==References==
*{{cite book|title=Roy Lichtenstein|publisher=[[Praeger Publishers]]|editor=Coplans, John|year=1972}}

==External links==
*[http://image-duplicator.com/main.php?work_id=0126&year=1963&decade=60# Lichtenstein Foundation website]{{Dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
*[http://aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/roy-fox-lichtenstein-letter-to-ellen-h-johnson-9582# Roy Lichtenstein letter to Ellen H. Johnson with original source material for ''I Know...Brad''] at the [[Archives of American Art]], Smithsonian Institution

{{Roy Lichtenstein}}

[[Category:1964 paintings]]
[[Category:20th-century portraits]]
[[Category:Paintings by Roy Lichtenstein]]
[[Category:Portraits by American artists]]

I Know...Brad - Revision history

2601:646:4080:4B80:509F:CDDE:E3A8:C330: Added name of original comic artist (as shown in detail of already attached image)