Takka takka
| Takka takka |
|---|
| Roy Lichtenstein , 1962 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 173 × 143 cm |
|
Museum Ludwig , Cologne
Link to the picture |
Takka Takka is a painting by the American artist Roy Lichtenstein from 1962. The 173 × 143 cm picture is in the Museum Ludwig in Cologne . In this picture Lichtenstein depicted the muzzle of a firing machine gun in the comic style typical of him .
Image description
The wide format painting Takka Takka is horizontally divided into two areas, of which the upper area takes up one third and the lower two thirds of the picture.
In the lower two thirds the painter depicts a war scene in a style typical of comics and focuses on the muzzle of a firing machine gun, which is located in the lower third of the picture. Above the gun barrel, clouds of smoke and yellow-red rays and jagged elements indicate explosions . Directly above the rifle is a hand grenade that has a throwing tail and flies in the direction of the shooter. In addition, yellow cartridge cases can be seen that are spat out by the rifle. Below the rifle there are parts of vegetation that are kept in green. All picture elements are framed by black contour lines . The extreme dynamics of the picture and the scene are emphasized by the TAKKA TAKKA lettering, which runs through the picture in large red letters.
The upper third is completely painted in yellow. On this background is the text in black capital letters:
- THE EXHAUSTED SOLDIERS, SLEEPLESS FOR FIVE AND SIX DAYS AT A TIME, ALWAYS HUNGRY FOR DECENT CHOW, SUFFERING FROM THE TROPICAL FUNGUS INFECTIONS, KEPT FIGHTING!
Emergence
Takka Takka goes back to a single image of the comic strip "Battlefield Action # 40", page 2, published by the Charlton Comics Group in February 1962. American marines fought in 1942 on Guadalcanal , the main island of the Solomon Islands, to conquer it. The battle, code-named Operation Watchtower , went down as the Battle of Guadalcanal as a turning point in World War II in the Pacific theater of war, as this was the first time the Pacific Allies took the offensive. A total of over 40,000 soldiers were killed in this battle, most of them Japanese.
Lichtenstein focused the scene on a machine gun and also took an existing hand that appears to be throwing a hand grenade out of the picture. The Japanese machine gunner recognizable on the helmet in the original picture is also missing in Takka Takka . This centering made the entire scene anonymous - the American and Japanese soldiers depicted in the original are not present in Roy Lichtenstein's picture.
Interpretation and effect
In the picture Takka Takka Lichtenstein consciously concentrated on the depiction of the military equipment, in this case the machine gun, during his function in the depicted war. It disguises the person carrying it out, making the rifle appear as an automatically functioning device. Potential victims are also not to be seen. The aggressiveness of the picture is massively increased by the lack of people, since there are no psychological reasons to condemn the sitter.
A reference to people is just the text that emphasizes heroisierend the situation of the soldiers and the heroism is: Despite the inhuman hardships through lack of sleep, hunger and tropical fever fight the soldiers on. It is based on the texts of war correspondents and is intended to expose the emptiness and the urge to justify these descriptions. The striking abstraction of the illustration in cartoon style, the noise imitation of the rapid-fire rifle in the form of the onomatopoeia “Takka Takka” and the bright colors further exaggerate the artificiality of the scenery - the true extent and the consequences of the violence depicted are only formed in the viewer's imagination.
Classification in Lichtenstein's work
Army and war scenes
(external web links)
In Lichtenstein's works after 1961, depictions of the army and scenes from the war can be found regularly. The spectrum ranges from calm depictions such as Mr. Bellemy (1961), in which a young officer is thinking about a first encounter with a Mr. Bellemy, to the submarine scene Torpedo ... go! (1963) to various scenes with warplanes like Tex! (1962), Bratatat! (1962) and Whaam (1963) as well as the work As I opened Fire (1964), which consists of three panels .
The comic depictions of Explosion are a specialty , for which Lichtenstein created a visual presentation with an extremely high recognition value . He bundles the event, which can only be perceived as light, noise and smoke, in a star-like depiction, which he also implemented in many of his other pictures and later also in enamel steel sculptures.
supporting documents
Individual evidence
literature
- Janis Hendrickson: Roy Lichtenstein. The irony of the banal. Benedikt Taschen Verlag, Cologne 1988, 1994, ISBN 3-8228-9135-5
- Takka takka. In: Klaus Honnef: Pop Art. Taschen GmbH, Cologne 2006, pp. 50–51, ISBN 978-3-8228-2216-6