Untitled, from Notes on a Room

Since the late 1970s, Louise Lawler’s eye has been trained on practices of display, whether in private homes or in arts institutions. Her photographs emphasize the relationship of works of art to their surrounding context, as these two domestic scenes amply demonstrate. The photolithograph to the left, from the portfolio Notes on a Room, shows one of Roy Lichtenstein’s entablature paintings from the 70s, hung on a wall blanketed in floral patterned wallpaper. The lines of the painting—a Pop treatment of ornamental features found on classical building façades—draw attention to the other lines that define the space, from the thick verticals of the radiator to the rails and spindles of the chair that sits below the canvas. The strong horizontal band of light that transverses the space nods to Lichtenstein’s own process for painting the entablatures, which entailed photo-graphing New York buildings at noon, when the contrast between light and shade on their classicizing façades would be strongest.