Roy Lichtenstein’s Cathedral V (C. 79) extends his 1969 Cathedral series, a body of work that pushes the limits of perception, reproduction, and abstraction. In this print, Lichtenstein deploys his signature Ben-Day dot technique, layering dense black and yellow dots to create a flickering image that oscillates between figuration and abstraction. The façade of a Gothic cathedral emerges only through careful, sustained looking, its vertical spires and pointed arches buried within a field of mechanical dots.

Unlike the airy luminosity of Cathedral I or the stark monochrome of Cathedral III, Cathedral V relies on a high-contrast palette that intensifies the optical vibration. The black and yellow, when overlaid, produce a surface that appears both flat and dynamic, simultaneously mechanical and suggestively architectural. The cathedral exists here not as a solid structure but as an unstable presence, dissolving into the very means of its reproduction.

Lichtenstein’s cathedrals are frequently compared to Monet’s famous Rouen Cathedral series (1892–1894), in which the Impressionist painted the Gothic façade under changing conditions of light and atmosphere. Where Monet dissolved architecture into natural light, Lichtenstein dissolves it into the rigid codes of mass production: dots, grids, and mechanical overlays. In doing so, he translates the subject of divine permanence into the language of modern media.

Cathedral V in particular underscores the meta-commentary on creation and perception that runs throughout Lichtenstein’s practice. The work calls attention to how images are constructed—whether through paint and light in Monet’s time or through industrial dots in Lichtenstein’s. The viewer’s perception becomes the true medium of the artwork, as the cathedral reveals and conceals itself depending on the eye’s distance and focus.

By employing a reductive system of dots to render a subject historically laden with spiritual and cultural weight, Lichtenstein creates a tension between the sacred and the banal, between transcendence and mass reproducibility. The cathedral becomes both a monument and a pattern, both an emblem of eternity and a fleeting optical illusion.

With Cathedral V, Lichtenstein closes in on the paradox of Pop Art: the elevation of ordinary or mechanical processes to the realm of fine art. Here, the permanence of Gothic architecture is reimagined as a temporary flicker in the field of modern perception—a sacred image transformed into a commentary on the very act of seeing.