Located in the Sculpture Garden at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC is Roy Lichenstein’s famous House 1. From a distance it simply appears to be a cartoon-ish facade of a simple 1-storey home. Peculiar but not trippy…
However, as you approach you’ll begin to notice something very strange. What looks like an an outward facing home is indeed an inward facing sculpture. It’s quite mind bending and wonderful. The video below (#1) really demonstrates the optical illusion best. The subsequent pictures then show Lichtenstein’s House from various angles to give you a true sense of this artwork.
Here’s the official description from the National Gallery of Art:
Roy Lichtenstein is best known for the pop paintings based on advertisements and comic strips that he made in the 1960s. He also produced a significant body of sculpture, including large-scale works designed for the outdoors. House I incorporates the hallmarks of the artist’s style: crisp, elemental drawing, heavy black outlines, and a palette based on primary colors. Whereas most of the artist’s sculpture approximates freestanding paintings in relief rather than volumetric structures in the round, some of his late sculpture, such as House I, exploits the illusionistic effects of a third dimension. The side of the house at once projects toward the viewer while appearing to recede into space.
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