PRESENTLOCATION: Museum fur Moderne Kunst, Frankfort.
As in Drowning Girl (1963) this is another watery romance scene. But in We Rose Up Slowly the mood is happiness not sorrow. In this painting there are two beautiful Aryan blonde haired blue eyed types of opposite sexes are finding "ecstasy" in one another's arms.# Their two faces practically mirror each other in shape and colour. They are bound together with strips of blue Benday dots. Once again Lichtenstein uses limited colours and his Benday dots to mimic printed material. Only primary colours and black have been used against a white background. The yellow and blue dominate the images. Clear, thick, bold black outlines are used again to make the image stand out. The text as in the previous Takka Takka (1962) is completely separate from the image and is on its own panel. The function of this text is similar to that of an "off" voice in a film would, commenting without being involved in the scene itself. The slightly slanted slim hand written block letters are interspersed with dots to indicate breathlessness and hesitation.# The text helps the viewer participate. The drawing style and hand written letters are as impersonal as possible. The text is one of the most poetic, sugary texts that Lichtenstein has used. Somehow the luscious sense of weightless intoxication an waken a sense of desire in the viewers even though he or she ought to "know better" than to respond to such cliched eroticism.# This links to Lichtensteins quote "I take a cliche and try to organize its forms to make it monumental. The difference is often not great but it is crucial."# Again Lichtenstein has taken a stereotype to conform to public opinion to make his work accessible and understandable to all.
