M ajestic and tranquil, Yellow Cliffs (Study) exemplifies the remarkable body of over 20 works that Roy Lichtenstein created just before his passing in 1997, Landscapes in the Chinese Style. Executed in 1996, the present work Yellow Cliffs (Study) elegantly embodies the extraordinary marriage of cross-cultural influences, exacting painterly skill and superlative Pop sensibility that defines the best of Roy Lichtenstein’s celebrated oeuvre. While Lichtenstein had long expressed an interest in Chinese art, it was his encounter with the monotype and pastel landscapes of Edgar Degas at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 1994 that triggered his return to the landscape genre in 1995. Inspired by Degas’s ability to indicate the form and features of a landscape using amorphous shapes that verged on the abstract, Lichtenstein began to interrogate how monochromatic shapes could be representational, using his signature “Benday dots” to design serene landscapes that play with perceptions of depth and scale. Appropriating the motifs of the classical landscape painting of the Song dynasty (960-1279) and the traditional scroll format, Lichtenstein beautifully creates the form of a crooked bonsai tree from a collage of cut sponge-painted paper, emerging against a mountainous background of “Benday dots”.

A study for Lichtenstein’s Yellow Cliffs, the present work presents a remarkable window into the mind and creative process of the artist, with occasional marks and strokes of underdrawings and handwritten annotations visible through areas of translucent collage materials, adding a richness and depth to the work that is rare to encounter. Appearing at auction for the first t.mes , having belonged to the same private collects or for the past two decades and originating from the esteemed Leo Castelli gallery, the present work is a superb example from Lichtenstein’s final series, works of which are rarely seen at auction.

Lichtenstein demonstrated an early interest in Chinese art when at the age of just 21 and stationed in London for the Second World War, the artist wrote home to his parents: “I bought a book on Chinese painting, which I could have gotten in New York half the price. I’ll probably send it home with my collects ion of African masks, as my duffle bag now weighs more than I do, with all the art supplies.” (the artist cited in: Exh. Cat. ,Hong Kong, Gagosian Gallery, Roy Lichtenstein: Landscapes in the Chinese Style, 2011, p. 7) Later, when Lichtenstein returned to Ohio State University to complete his undergraduate and graduate degrees, he enrolled in classes on East Asian art history.; Lichtenstein describes, “The thing that interested me was the mountains in front of mountains in front of mountains, and huge nature with little people… We all have a vague idea of what Chinese landscape look like—that sense of grandeur the Chinese felt about nature.” (Roy Lichtenstein, quoted in Calvin Tomkins, “The Good China,” The New Yorker, September 30, 1996) In the last two years of his life, Lichtenstein twice visited the storerooms of the Museum of Replica Handbags s, Boston, in order to view their Southern Song album leaves. He was profoundly influenced by such thirteenth century Song artists as Ma Yuan, Liang Kai, and Muqi, all of whom investigated: “the effects of atmosphere with brush and ink in sophisticated and subtle manner, pushing the real and the visible to the edges of abstraction in a way that resonated deeply with Lichtenstein’s own artistic goals.” (Stephen Little, “Landscapes in the Chinese Style,” in: Exh. Cat., Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective, 2013, p. 89).

The final body of work created by the artist, Roy Lichtenstein: Landscapes in the Chinese Style was exhibited at the Museum of Replica Handbags s, Boston, just before his death in September 1997. Curated by Sarina Tang, the exhibition subsequently traveled to Singapore Art Museum (1998); Hong Kong Museum of Art (1998); and Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. (1998-1999), test.mes nt to the great importance of the series. Since then, Gagosian has presented works from the series in both Hong Kong (2011) and New York (2012), and today, examples can be found in prestigious museum collects ions around the world, including the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York. A seminal figure in the Pop art movement and beyond, Roy Lichtenstein continues to be recognised as one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, as evidenced by his enduring legacy and exhibitions dedicated to the artist, including the upcoming Roy Lichtenstein Retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York in 2026.

《黃崖（習作）》氣勢雄偉，安雅寧靜，是1997年羅伊・李奇登斯坦去世前完成的一組廿多幅《中國式山水》系列中的傑出範例。本作繪於1996年，體現了跨文化影響、精細的繪畫技巧和對流行元素有極高的敏感度結合下，成就出李奇登斯坦備受讚譽的創作中最優秀的作品。雖然李奇登斯坦一直表示對中國藝術感興趣，但直至1994年他在紐約大都會藝術博物館欣賞到埃德加・德加的單色粉彩風景畫後，才觸發他在1995年重投創作風景畫的懷抱。德加利用近乎抽象、沒有邊線的輕巧輪廓描繪景色，李奇登斯坦從中大受啟發，開始審視單色形狀如何呈現具象表現，利用標誌性的「班戴圓點」設計寧靜的山水，展示透視景深和比例。本作中，李奇登斯坦借鑑宋代山水畫的經典主題和傳統卷軸形式，在一片由班戴圓點組成的山石前，貼上以海綿上色、裁成曲折蜿蜒的剪紙小樹。

本作是李奇登斯坦為準備《黃崖》而創作的習作，讓觀者得以了解他的思考和創作過程，加上紙上偶然的記號，以及半透明拼貼物料上透出的底稿筆跡和手寫註解，更為本作增添豐富的質感和難得一見的深度。本作最初出自著名的李奧・卡斯特尼畫廊，現藏者後期購入後亦珍藏二十載，未曾易手，如今首度登上拍場，誠為李奇登斯坦最後創作的系列中絕佳典例，而且此系列的作品在拍場上實在稀見。

李奇登斯坦很早期就表示對中國藝術有興趣，他於二戰期間駐守倫敦，當時他只有廿一歲，於信中向父母寫道：「我買了一本關於中國畫的書，本來我可以在紐約用一半價錢就買到。我應該會將書連同我收藏的非洲面具一起寄回家，因為我的行李袋現在比我還重，裡面都是我的美術用品。」（引自藝術家，展覽圖錄，香港，高古軒畫廊，《羅伊・李奇登斯坦：中國式山水》，2011年，頁7）退役後，李奇登斯坦回到俄亥俄州立大學繼續學業，修畢本科和研究生學位，期間曾修讀東亞藝術史課程，他形容道：「讓我感興趣的是山前有山又有山，以及廣闊的大自然裡人煙稀少⋯⋯我們都對中國風景有一個籠統的概念——那種中國人從自然中找到的壯闊感。」（引述羅伊・李奇登斯坦，卡文・湯金斯，〈美好的中國〉，《紐約客》，1996年9月30日）李奇登斯坦在世的最後兩年，兩度參觀波士頓美術館的儲藏室，就是為了欣賞館藏的南宋畫冊。他深受馬遠、梁楷、牧谿等十三世紀中國畫家影響，有人曾研究他們道：「筆墨渲染精妙，營造簡淡高逸的氣氛，將眼前的真實景色推演至近乎抽象的邊緣，李奇登斯坦的創作目的正好與此產生深刻共鳴。」（斯蒂芬・利特爾，〈中國式山水〉，展覽圖錄，芝加哥，芝加哥藝術博物館，《羅伊・李奇登斯坦：回顧展》，2013年，頁89）

李奇登斯坦最後創作的一組作品，於1997年9月他去世前在波士頓美術館展出，展覽名為「羅伊・李奇登斯坦：中國式山水」。展覽由唐啟鳳策劃，其後巡迴至新加坡美術館（1998）、香港藝術館（1998）和華盛頓特區的史密森尼博物院（1998–1999）展出，足證這個系列的重要性。此後，高古軒畫廊也在香港（2011）和紐約（2012）展出出自這個系列的作品。如今這個系列的不少作品已獲世界各地的著名博物館收藏，例如華盛頓特區的亞瑟・M・賽克勒藝術館和紐約大都會藝術博物館。李奇登斯坦身為普普藝術運動和其他領域的開創先驅，他會繼續獲公認為二十世紀最具影響力的藝術家之一，他留下的作品和後世為他籌辦的展覽就是最好的證明，即將為他舉行的大展，有2026年紐約惠特尼美國藝術博物館的「羅伊・李奇登斯坦回顧展」。