Wall Explosion II
- Artist: Roy Lichtenstein
- Date: 1965
- Medium: Enamel on steel
- Dimensions: object: 1702 x 1880 x 102 mm, 110 kg
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
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About this artwork
This is the “Wall Explosion II” by Roy Lichtenstein. Created in 1965, the enamel‑on‑steel relief turns a dramatic blast into a sleek, stylised icon. Though it shows an explosion, the surface is calm and clean—no shrapnel, no ruin—so Lichtenstein turns a violent moment into an abstract shape. He produced this piece at a time when the United States was deeply embroiled in the Vietnam War, and the work draws on a comic‑book illustration from a popular boys’ war comic that originally depicted World II. The blue steel mesh, punched in a grid, echoes the Benday dots used in printing newspapers and comics, giving the piece a familiar texture while also grounding it in mass‑media culture. It belongs to a small series of explosion sculptures Lichtenstein made that year, all of which illustrate how a fleeting moment can be captured and made permanent in metal.
See it in person
Wall Explosion II is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
