I Know...Brad

Background

Lichtenstein stated that the name Brad sounded heroic to him and was used with the aim of cliched oversimplification.

Background

Measuring 174 cm × 95.9 cm (68.5 in × 37.75 in), I Know...Brad is considered an ironic depiction of emotional expression. The work is a three-quarter-length, single image of a lovelorn girl. 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."

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:

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 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 Chéret's posters.

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. Lichtenstein stated that the name Brad sounded heroic to him and was used with the aim of cliched oversimplification. The work presents an "...unmistakeable acknowledgement to the flamboyant linearism of Art Nouveau...".