Drowning Girl by Roy Lichtenstein (Interpretation and Analysis)

Drowning Girl
Source: Museum of Modern Art

I don’t know much about pop art, but I’ve always been a big fan of Roy Lichtenstein’s most famous painting, Drowning Girl. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you might have gathered that I’m an admirer of drama in art, and this painting has a simply incredible amount of inherent drama.

As the MoMA explains, Lichtenstein was inspired by the melodramatic and highly emotional plots of comic books. The painting itself is actually an adaptation of the cover of a real comic book with a few small changes. Lichtenstein himself noted,

“I was very excited about, and interested in, the highly emotional content yet detached, impersonal handling of love, hate, war, etc. in these cartoon images.”

At its heart, the painting questions what art is. When you think of fine art, comic books probably aren’t the first things that come to mind. According to my research, contemporary critics were skeptical of the piece, questioning whether or not it was good art or if was even legitimate art. In some ways, just creating Drowning Girl answered those questions. By presenting comic book art on a grand, monumental scale, Lichtenstein forced viewers to consider it critically and to broaden their definition of art.

However, when you begin to dissect the painting, it isn’t all that different from the work of the Old Masters. As the name suggests, the painting depicts a young woman who is drowning. Her anguished expression and the way her hand reaches out of the water makes her distress obvious to the viewer, but her speech bubble explains that she’d rather let the ocean take her than call for aid. Although there is an element of cliche here, there is also a universality about the narrative that makes it timeless. Drowning Girl has its roots in Greek Tragedy, consciously or unconsciously evoking tragic heroines such as Antigone. These narrative elements are ubiquitous in Western art, recognizable in nearly every genre from Baroque mythological scenes to Neoclassical history paintings. Although dramatically different in style, Lichtenstein’s piece cannot be understood without the context of the Western artistic tradition. His piece reworks these themes and re-contextualizes them for the modern age.

Disclaimer: I’m not an art historian or an expert on this topic. The above is my opinion, based on my interpretation of my foreknowledge of art and history. If I’ve done any additional research, I’ll note it above.