''Takka Takka'' is a 1962 pop art painting by Roy Lichtenstein in his

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

style of using Ben-Day dots and a story panel. This work is held in the collection of the

Museum Ludwig Museum Ludwig, located in Cologne, Germany, houses a collection of modern art. It includes works from Pop Art, Abstract and Surrealism, and has one of the largest Picasso collections in Europe. It holds many works by Andy Warhol and Roy ...

. The title comes from the onomatopoeic graphics that depict the sound that comes from a

machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) ar ...

Background

Lichtenstein was a trained

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

pilot, draftsman and artist as well as a

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

(WWII) veteran who never saw active combat. The work depicts a

firing as it is situated above the

camouflage Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the b ...

palm frond The palm branch is a symbol of victory, triumph, peace, and eternal life originating in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean world. The palm ''( Phoenix)'' was sacred in Mesopotamian religions, and in ancient Egypt represented immortality. ...

s during the

Battle of Guadalcanal The Guadalcanal campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal and codenamed Operation Watchtower by American forces, was a military campaign fought between 7 August 1942 and 9 February 1943 on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the ...

. The image shows

shell casing A cartridge or a round is a type of pre-assembled firearm ammunition packaging a projectile ( bullet, shot, or slug), a propellant substance (usually either smokeless powder or black powder) and an ignition device ( primer) within a metall ...

s and a grenade in mid flight. An explosion is stylized with the titular phrase. The source of ''Takka Takka'' is the comic book ''Battlefield Action'' #40 (February 1962, Charlton Comics Group). Lichtenstein's reinterpretation of the original comic image eliminates the horizon line and other indications of depth of field. He also eliminates the human element by removing a hand, a helmet and the Japanese rising sun emblem.

When the characters in some of his works, e.g. ''Takka Takka'', ''

Whaam! ''Whaam!'' is a 1963 diptych painting by the American artist Roy Lichtenstein. It is one of the best-known works of pop art, and among Lichtenstein's most important paintings. ''Whaam!'' was first exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New ...

'' and ''

Okay Hot-Shot, Okay! ''Okay Hot-Shot, Okay!'' (sometimes ''Okay Hot-Shot'') is a 1963 pop art painting by Roy Lichtenstein that uses his Ben-Day dots style and a text balloon. It is one of several examples of military art that Lichtenstein created between 1962 ...

'', were criticised for being militaristic, Lichtenstein responded: "the heroes depicted in comic books are fascist types, but I don't take them seriously in these paintings—maybe there is a point in not taking them seriously, a political point. I use them for purely formal reasons."

Critical response

'' The Washingtonian'' critic Sophie Gilbert, regards ''Takka Takka'' (along with ''

Bratatat! ''Bratatat!'' is a 1963 pop art painting by Roy Lichtenstein in his comic book style of using Ben-Day dots and a text balloon. Background Lichtenstein was a trained United States Army pilot, draftsman and artist as well as a World War II v ...

'') as exemplary of Lichtenstein's "aggressive, hyper-masculine war paintings" due to the depiction of the guns creating sound effects and the use of onomatopoeic words during military conflict. ''Takka Takka'', with its disruption of the primary narrative clause by text focused on absent details about the past or omitted present, is described as "the most unlikely conjunction of picture and story". The work is regarded as one in which Lichtenstein exaggerated comic book sound effects in common pop art style. In the view of critic Steven Weisenburger, Lichtenstein's reimagining creates a tension between the narrative and graphical content because the "exhausted soldiers" are absent. ''Takka Takka'' is a subversion of the interpretive conventions of "pop" culture, "but more important, it interrogates a shared idea about war, that war's sublime violence heroizes." Implicitly comparing ''Takka Takka'' to Picasso's ''Guernica'', art historian Klaus Honnef states that the work's use of the "cartoon idiom in combination with elements of written language" demonstrates that art does not have to present the horrors of war graphically in order to be forceful.

References

External links

Lichtenstein Foundation website
{{Roy Lichtenstein 1962 paintings Military art Paintings by Roy Lichtenstein Collections of the Museum Ludwig

Background

Critical response

See also

References

External links