A closeup of Roy Lichtenstein's brushstrokes in “Painting with Statue of Liberty, 1983.” At right is the ID tag for the painting so you can get all the details.

I've long been a huge Lichtenstein fan. He was such a master of precision and satire. My main complaint is that he seemed unaware of or unconcerned with the politics of his work, going so far as to say:

“I paint my own pictures upside down or sideways. I often don't even remember what most of them are about. I obviously know in the beginning what I'm painting, and that it will be funny or ironic. But I try to suppress that while I'm doing them. The subjects aren't what hold my interest.”

Is it just me, or is this pretension at lack of pretense highly pretentious?