Roy Lichtenstein’s Haystack VI State III (1969) is a striking lithograph that continues the artist’s bold reimagining of Claude Monet’s Haystacks series. Where Monet used thick impasto and shifting light to capture the fleeting atmosphere of rural France, Lichtenstein translates the motif into his Pop Art lexicon, using Ben-Day dots, flat planes of color, and machine-like precision to present the pastoral subject in an entirely new visual language.

In this state, rendered in vivid red and ochre tones, the haystack forms emerge through a dense field of dots that suggest both texture and structure while maintaining the flatness of the surface. The interplay between positive and negative space generates the illusion of depth and shadow, despite the deliberately mechanical execution. The warm palette conveys a sense of intensity, almost evoking the glow of a setting sun, but without any trace of naturalistic brushwork. Instead, the viewer is confronted with an image that is simultaneously evocative and artificial.

By appropriating Monet’s Impressionist masterpiece, Lichtenstein engages in a dialogue about the nature of representation, originality, and mass production. His Haystacks are not atmospheric studies of light and time, but rather conceptual meditations on how images are consumed and reproduced in modern culture. This print exemplifies how Lichtenstein turned even the most iconic works of art history into commentary on the mechanics of vision and the commodification of imagery.

Haystack VI State III is part of a rare edition of just 13, making it one of the most exclusive works in Lichtenstein’s printmaking oeuvre. It captures both his reverence for and playful critique of the Impressionist tradition, while demonstrating his mastery of transforming painterly subjects into bold, graphic statements that challenge the very foundations of art history.