Tacoma Art Museum Docents Blog TAM Docents Blog: FW: cipher in Lichtenstein's paintings

Concerning the “NHN” symbol in some of the Lichtenstein paintings, here is Rock’s answer. Basically, it is a stylized mouth – the Ns are like vampire teeth (in the words of a grade 3 boy) and the Hs are regular square teeth.

Heide Fernandez-Llamazares

Assistant Museum Educator and Docent Coordinator

hllamazares@TacomaArtMuseum.org

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From: Rock Hushka
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2006 2:54 PM
To: Carri Campbell; Heide Fernandez-Llamazares
Cc: Stephanie Stebich
Subject: cipher in Lichtenstein's paintings

Many people have asked what the initials or letters in three of the large paintings Indian Composition (upper right corner), Face and Feather (the stylized mouth), and Amerind Composition II (left center). This is a motif adapted from a photograph Lichtenstein likely saw in Ancient Art of the Andes by Wendell C. Bennett (1954). This book was published by the Museum of Modern Art. In the case with three books, Fig. 82 of this volume is displayed, and it shows a large ceramic vessel made by the culture of Coast Tiahuanaco. This culture flourished on the south coast of present-day Peru and northern Bolivia, about A.D. 200 to 600. It is illustrated on page 73, Fig. 36 of the Roy Lichtenstein: American Indian Encounters.

Rock Hushka