Haystack VI State II continues Roy Lichtenstein’s radical reinterpretation of Claude Monet’s Haystacks through the lens of Pop Art, advancing his exploration of how visual information shifts across states of development. In this iteration, the pastoral motif is rendered in a vibrant yellow field punctuated by black Ben-Day dots, transforming Monet’s play of natural light into a bold exercise in graphic reduction.

Where Monet’s series sought to capture temporal light variations across the same subject, Lichtenstein investigates how the mechanical structure of printmaking alters perception. The haystacks, faint yet recognizable, emerge from the optical vibration of the dots—an image that hovers between figuration and abstraction. The interplay of high-contrast yellow and black exaggerates this tension, pushing the pastoral into the territory of the industrial and manufactured.

As with all states in the Haystacks suite, this proof reveals Lichtenstein’s fascination with the translation of historical painting into modern visual codes. Rather than depicting nature, he emphasizes the systems—dots, grids, mechanical repetition—through which art is perceived in the mass-media age.

The extreme scarcity of this state, issued in an edition of only 13, makes it not only a critical study in Lichtenstein’s process but also a rare object that underscores the artist’s methodical dismantling and reassembly of art history. Haystack VI State II crystallizes the dialogue between Monet’s Impressionism and Lichtenstein’s Pop sensibility: one rooted in the fleeting qualities of light, the other in the permanence of printed systems.