■ Meet Israeli Sculptor Itzik Benghalom and view his internationally recognized Bronze Interlocking Sculptures , Hanging Around Pop artistoy Lichtenstein, the man v,,,ho parlayed hot dogs and comic-strip nymphs into icons in the '60s, never lost his wry sense of humor. Nor did he lose his knack for crafting a cliche into a body of work, as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago blueprints in a new exhibit devoted to the artist's last major venture. The old adage "Home, Sweet Home" gets hammered here, and good. "Roy Lichtenstein: Interiors," open through Oct. 10, satirizes '80s excess via 51 cartoon canvases and drawings of living rooms as phony as movie sets. Even the air seems starched around each bright- This icon of 20th-century art is on display at hued chair and sofa organized in Birmingham's David Klein Gallery. rigid lines. No cereal bowl, TV Guide or other flotsam of what would be his last major series. human life litters these soulless show- Dorothy Lichtenstein said her hus- rooms. Needless to say, welcome mats band was spurred by lavish full-color are conspicuous by their absence. Even spreads of private homes in magazines the roaring blaze in the fireplace in like Architectural Digest. The pop artist Interior with Bonsai Tree (1991) looks decreed Yuppie designer digs "bland" icy formal. and "inhuman." "They're places you could live in — "He wanted people to get the joke," but wouldn't want to," noted MCA she said. Their own studio/home, a director Robert Fitzpatrick, who curated one-time ironworks in New York, was the show with the artist's widow, cozy with overstuffed furniture and Dorothy. "These are fairly cold, unread books and newspapers, mostly mechanical. There's nothing intensely mine," she laughed. "There were paint personal in them. But it's warm how drops on things, too." Roy invites you in [to explore]," he said. Show highlights include a full-size Lichtenstein was born to Jewish maquette for House I (1997), a car- parents, Milton and Beatrice (Werner) toonish cutout of a home with a slop- Lichtenstein, in October 1923 on ing roof that the pop guru dubbed his New York's Upper West Side. His guesthouse. The massive painting Large father was a prosperous realtor. The Interior with Three Reflections (1993) is younger Lichtenstein earned his bach- a two-triptych canvas where one side elor and master of fine arts degrees at reflects the other like a mirror, blurring Ohio State University. the boundaries between art and reality. Before he died at age 74 in 1997, What kind of people would actual- Lichtenstein devoted his last decade to ly want to live in these domestic follies? Sly hints abound that Lichtenstein viewed museum-going art col- lectors as prime sus- pects. Several of the stuffi- est rooms feature works by himself or colleagues like Andy Warhol. When human figures do turn up, they are as anonymous as their 9 V is, i i ii itos) /*/ surroundings. In Nude with Yellow Flower I (1994), a blond refugee Roy Lichtenstein: "Home, Sweet Home," at the Chicago from a romance comic Museum of Contemporary Art. wears a look of polite 1. AI 0 t 0 , f i d. - , ms`U'.: ••.<