The Modern Head Series critically dismantles the history of Modern Art. In the mid-1960s, Lichtenstein shifted from using mass-produced imagery to appropriating stylistic conventions and specific works of Modern masters, including Picasso, Monet, Matisse, and Mondrian. As a transitional figure between modernism and postmodernism, Lichtenstein re-created versions of Impressionist, Cubist, Art Deco, and German Expressionist works in his signature comic style; yet not without reverence, he once noted, “The things I have apparently parodied I actually admire.” The Modern Head Series was inspired by Alexei von Jawlensky’s Constructivist portrait heads presented in the 1968 Pasadena Art Museum’s Serial Imagery exhibition. He adopted the Expressionist motifs of Jawlensky’s pensive faces to create original compositions in his Pop aesthetic.

Modern Head Series challenges Modern Art by producing fine art portraits like they’re mass-produced comic illustrations. Lichtenstein alluded to the 1920 Constructivist and Machine Art method of depicting human figures with an industrial machine quality by using machine printing techniques of dots and flat colors to create people, as if they’re media images. Each work in Modern Head Series was produced using a distinct commercial printing process – woodcut, lithography, line-cut, embossing, and die-cut paper overlay. The portfolio combines Art Deco and Cubist traditions of flat and curvilinear geometric planes with Lichtenstein’s signature bright rich colors and schematic forms. These methods, along with dotted areas and regularized stripes, signify tone and texture of printed material.

In addition to the five Modern Head prints, Lichtenstein created three Modern Head sculptures from 1969-1970; Untitled Head I in brass, Untitled Head II in California English Walnut, and Modern Head Relief in brass. The sculptures resemble Cubist practices and Art Deco industrial architecture style.