Bratatat Triptych Collage

Bratatat Triptych
Very Large Postage Stamp Triptych
This picture is composed of three canvases each measuring 92cm x 122cm. Approximately 8,000 used postage stamps have been used to create the design. Postage stamps are available in a wide range of colours so the stamp colours in the pictures are not altered and post marks are still visible on close observation. This picture was created on quality deep edge canvas. It is not framed and should not be displayed in direct sunlight although all canvases are varnished twice and have a coat of U.V. protection.
Bratatat Triptych is a 1963 Pop Art painting by Roy Lichtenstein in his comic book style of using Ben-Day dots and speech balloons. He intentionally mimicked comic book printing using flat areas of colour, strong contrasts, precise outlines and stylised shading for his ‘Pop Art’ paintings. Though he trained as a pilot and was a World War 11 veteran he did not see active service. None the less he was aware of and sensitive towards the loss of sons of other pilot friends and the futility of war. His answer came through his art making statements to his audience with titles of ‘OK, Hot Shot’, ‘Jet Pilot’, ‘Wham!’, ‘Blam’ and ‘Bratatat’. However, he was often misunderstood with one major female critic accusing him of creating, ’aggressive, hyper-masculine war paintings.’
This triptych, a tribute to Roy Lichtenstein began life as one single piece-that of the right hand canvas 'Double Barrel' BRAT. However having seen the scale of the whole triptych at Tate Modern I felt I had devalued the power of his argument by limiting the design to a single canvas. Therefore I proceeded to work on two more canvases to complete the triptych. Each canvas is 122cm x 92cm - total height 122cm -total width 290cm (with two recommended 3cm gap between each piece).