1:1 Artists Select: Douglas Coupland | Roy Lichtenstein

The impulse to make connections between objects is a nearly universal experience. Artists are always in dialogue with their predecessors and peers, and they often make astute curators.

1:1 Artists Select is a new initiative that invites artists to select a work from the Vancouver Art Gallery’s extensive collection to be displayed in dialogue with their own work in the Forecourt.

The sixth to participate is Vancouver–based artist Douglas Coupland. He has selected a work from the collection by Roy Lichtenstein.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Douglas Coupland was born in 1961 in Baden-Soellingen, former West Germany, and studied at the Emily Car Institute of Art and Design (now Emily Carr University of Art + Design) and later in Japan and Italy. Coupland is known internationally as a writer and a visual artist. His practice encompasses installation, painting, photography and prints as well as public works. His art often synthesizes pop culture and technology with a range of art historical references and ecological critique. The Vancouver Art Gallery organized solo exhibitions of his art in 1987 and 2014, and his work first entered the Gallery’s collection in 2014.

Roy Lichtenstein is one of the foremost artists of the Pop Art movement. Born in 1923 in New York, NY, he studied fine arts at Ohio State University and taught at several post-secondary institutions. Lichtenstein’s graphic and highly stylized work rose to prominence in the 1950s and 60s. Widely known for incorporating a range of cultural influences in his art—from everyday objects and advertisements to comic books and art history—Lichtenstein appropriated methods of mass reproduction to subvert and challenge consumer values. His work has been featured in numerous exhibitions at the Gallery including the influential New York 13 (1969) and first entered the Gallery’s collection in 1967.