Whaam ! Whaam ! is a diptych painted by American artist Roy Lichtenstein in 1963 . One of the best - known works of pop art , it is among Lichtenstein ' s most important paintings . " Whaam ! " was first exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City in 1963 , and purchased by the Tate Gallery , London , in 1966 . It has been on permanent display at Tate Modern since 2006 . The left - hand panel of " Whaam ! " shows a fighter plane firing a rocket . The right - hand panel depicts the missile hitting its target , a second plane , which explodes into flames . Lichtenstein based the image on elements taken from several comic - book panels . He transformed his primary prototype , a panel from a 1962 war comic book , by dividing the composition into two panels and altering the relationship of the graphical and narrative elements . " Whaam ! " is regarded for the temporal , spatial and psychological integration of its two panels , which Lichtenstein conceived as a contrasting pair . The painting ' s title is displayed in the large onomatopoeia in the right panel . Lichtenstein studied as an artist before and after serving in the United States Army during World War II . He practiced anti - aircraft drills during basic training , and he was sent for pilot training but the program was canceled before it started . Among the topics he tackled after the war were romance and war . He depicted aerial combat in several works . " Whaam ! " is part of a series on war that he worked on between 1962 and 1964 , and along with " As I Opened Fire " ( 1964 ) is one of his two large war - themed paintings . Background . In 1943 Lichtenstein left his study of painting and drawing at Ohio State University to serve in the U . S . Army , where he remained until January 1946 . After entering training programs for languages , engineering , and piloting , all of which were canceled , he served as an orderly , draftsman and artist in noncombat roles . One of his duties at Camp Shelby was enlarging Bill Mauldin ' s " Stars and Stripes " cartoons . He was sent to Europe with an engineer battalion , but did not see active combat . As a painter , he eventually settled on an abstract - expressionist style with parodist elements . Around 1958 he began to incorporate hidden images of cartoon characters such as Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny into his abstract works . By the late 1950s and early 1960s , the American art world had grown accustomed to and tired of the subjective angst and " hot " look of abstract expressionism . A new generation of artists emerged with a more objective , " cool " approach characterized by the art movement s known today as minimalism , hard - edge painting , color field painting , the neo - Dada movement , Fluxus , and pop art , all of which re - defined the avant - garde contemporary art of the time . Pop art and neo - Dada re - introduced and changed the use of imagery by appropriating subject matter from commercial art , consumer objects , art history , and popular culture . Lichtenstein achieved international recognition during the 1960s as one of the initiators of the pop art movement in America . Regarding his use of imagery MoMA curator Bernice Rose observed that Lichtenstein was interested in " challenging the notion of originality as it prevailed at that time . " Lichtenstein ' s early comics - based works such as " Look Mickey " focused on popular animated characters . By 1963 he had progressed to more serious , dramatic subject matter , typically focusing on romantic situations or war scenes . Comic books as a genre were held in low esteem at the time . Public antipathy led in 1954 to examination of alleged connections between comic books and youth crime during Senate investigations into juvenile delinquency ; by the end of that decade , comic books were regarded as material of " the lowest commercial and intellectual kind " , according to Mark Thistlethwaite of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth . Lichtenstein was not a comic - book enthusiast as a youth , but was enticed as an artist by the challenge of creating art based on a subject remote from the typical " artistic image " . Lichtenstein admitted he was " very excited about , and very interested in , the highly emotional content yet detached impersonal handling of love , hate , war , etc . , in these cartoon images . " Lichtenstein ' s romance and war comic - based works took heroic subjects from small source panels and monumentalized them . " Whaam ! " is comparable in size to the generally large canvases painted at that time by the abstract expressionists . It is one of Lichtenstein ' s many works with an aeronautical theme . He said that " the heroes depicted in comic books are fascist types , but I don ' t take them seriously in these paintings — maybe there is a point in not taking them seriously , a political point . I use them for purely formal reasons . " History . " Whaam ! " adapts a panel by Irv Novick from the " Star Jockey " story from issue # 89 of DC Comics ' " All - American Men of War " ( Feb . 1962 ) . The original forms part of a dream sequence in which fictional World War II P - 51 Mustang pilot Johnny Flying Cloud , " the Navajo ace " , foresees himself flying a jet fighter while shooting down other jet planes . In Lichtenstein ' s painting , both the attacking and target planes are replaced by different types of aircraft . Paul Gravett suggests that Lichtenstein substituted the attacking plane with an aircraft from " Wingmate of Doom " illustrated by Jerry Grandenetti in the subsequent issue ( # 90 , April 1962 ) , and that the target plane was borrowed from a Russ Heath drawing in the third panel of page 3 of the " Aces Wild " story in the same issue # 89 . The painting also omits the speech bubble from the source in which the pilot exclaims " The enemy has become a flaming star ! " A smaller , single - panel oil painting by Lichtenstein around the same time , " Tex ! " , has a similar composition , with a plane at the lower left shooting an air - to - air missile at a second plane that is exploding in the upper right , with a word bubble . The same issue of " All - American Men of War " was the inspiration for at least three other Lichtenstein paintings , " Okay Hot - Shot , Okay ! " , " Brattata " and " Blam " , in addition to " Whaam ! " and " Tex ! " The graphite pencil sketch , " Jet Pilot " was also from that issue . Several of Lichtenstein ' s other comics - based works are inspired by stories about Johnny Flying Cloud written by Robert Kanigher and illustrated by Novick , including " Okay Hot - Shot , Okay ! " , " Jet Pilot " and " Von Karp " . Lichtenstein repeatedly depicted aerial combat between the United States and the Soviet Union . In the early and mid - 1960s , he produced " explosion " sculptures , taking subjects such as the " catastrophic release of energy " from paintings such as " Whaam ! " and depicting them in freestanding and relief forms . In 1963 , he was parodying a variety of artworks , from advertising and comics and to " high art " modern masterpieces by Cézanne , Mondrian , Picasso and others . At the time , Lichtenstein noted that " the things that I have apparently parodied I actually admire . " Lichtenstein ' s first solo exhibition was held at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City , from February 10 to March 3 , 1962 . It sold out before its opening . The exhibition included " Look Mickey " , " Engagement Ring " , " Blam " and " The Refrigerator " . According to the Lichtenstein Foundation website , " Whaam ! " was part of Lichtenstein ' s second solo exhibition at the Leo Castelli Gallery from September 28 to October 24 , 1963 , that also included " Drowning Girl " , " Baseball Manager " , " In the Car " , " Conversation " , and " Torpedo . . . Los ! " . Marketing materials for the show included the lithograph artwork , " Crak ! " The Lichtenstein Foundation website says that Lichtenstein began using his opaque projector technique in 1962 . in 1967 he described his process for producing comics - based art as follows : " Whaam ! " was purchased by the Tate Gallery in 1966 . In 1969 , Lichtenstein donated his initial graphite - on - paper drawing " Drawing for Whaam ! " , describing it as a " pencil scribble " . According to the Tate , Lichtenstein claimed that this drawing represented his " first visualization of " Whaam ! " and that it was executed just before he started the painting . " Although he had conceived of a unified work of art on a single canvas , he made the sketch on two sheets of paper of equal size — measuring . The painting has been displayed at Tate Modern since 2006 . In 2012 – 13 , both works were included in the largest Lichtenstein retrospective that visited the Art Institute of Chicago , the National Gallery of Art in Washington , D . C . , the Tate Modern in London and the Centre Pompidou . Description . " Whaam ! " depicts a fighter aircraft in the left panel firing a rocket into an enemy plane in the right panel , which disintegrates in a vivid red - and - yellow explosion . The cartoon style is emphasized by the use of the onomatopoeic lettering " " WHAAM ! " " in the right panel , and a yellow - boxed caption with black lettering at the top of the left panel . The textual exclamation " WHAAM ! " can be considered the graphic equivalent of a sound effect . This was to become a characteristic of his work — like others of his onomatopoeic paintings that contain exclamations such as " Bratatat ! " and " Varoom ! " . " Whaam ! " is one of Lichtenstein ' s series of war images , typically combining vibrant colors with an expressive narrative . " Whaam ! " is very large , measuring 1 . 7 m × 4 . 0 m ( 5 ft 7 in × 13 ft 4 in ) . It is less abstract than " As I Opened Fire " , another of his war scenes . Lichtenstein employs his usual comic - book style : stereotyped imagery in bright primary colors with black outlines , coupled with imitations of mechanical printer ' s Ben - Day dots . The use of these dots , which were invented by Benjamin Day to simulate color variations and shading , are considered Lichtenstein ' s " signature method " . " Whaam ! " departs from Lichtenstein ' s earlier diptychs such as " Step - on - Can with Leg " and " Like New " , in that the panels are not two variations of the same image . Although Lichtenstein strove to remain faithful to the source images , he constructed his paintings in a traditional manner , starting with a sketch which he adjusted to improve the composition and then projected on to a canvas to make the finished painting . In the case of " Whaam ! " , the sketch is on two pieces of paper , and the finished work is painted with Magna acrylic and oil paint on canvas . Although the transformation from a single - panel conception into a diptych painting occurred during the initial sketch , the final work varies from the sketch in several ways . The sketch suggests that the " WHAAM ! " motif would be colored white , although it is yellow in the finished work . Lichtenstein enlarged the main graphical subject of each panel ( the plane on the left and the flames on the right ) , bringing them closer together as a result . Lichtenstein built up the image with multiple layers of paint . The paint was applied using a scrub brush and handmade metal screen to produce Ben - Day dots via a process that left physical evidence behind . The Ben - Day dots technique enabled Lichtenstein to give his works a mechanically reproduced feel . Lichtenstein said that the work is " supposed to look like a fake , and it achieves that , I think " . Lichtenstein split the composition into two panels to separate the action from its consequence . The left panel features the attacking plane — placed at a diagonal to create a sense of depth — below the text balloon , which Lichtenstein has relegated to the margin above the plane . In the right panel , the exploding plane — depicted head - on — is outlined by the flames , accompanied by the bold exclamation " WHAAM ! " . Although separate , with one panel containing the missile launch and the other its explosion , representing two distinct events , the two panels are clearly linked spatially and temporally , not least by the horizontal smoke trail of the missile . Lichtenstein commented on this piece in a July 10 , 1967 , letter : " I remember being concerned with the idea of doing two almost separate paintings having little hint of compositional connection , and each having slightly separate stylistic character . Of course there is the humorous connection of one panel shooting the other . " Lichtenstein altered the composition to make the image more compelling , by making the exploding plane more prominent compared to the attacking plane than in the original . The smoke trail of the missile becomes a horizontal line . The flames of the explosion dominate the right panel , but the pilot and the airplane in the left panel are the narrative focus . They exemplify Lichtenstein ' s painstaking detailing of physical features such as the aircraft ' s cockpit . The other element of the narrative content is a text balloon that contains the following text : " I pressed the fire control . . . and ahead of me rockets blazed through the sky . . . " This is among the text believed to have been written by " All - American Men of War " editor Robert Kanigher . The yellow word " WHAAM ! " , altered from the red in the original comic - book panel and white in the pencil sketch , links the yellow of the explosion below it with the textbox to the left and the flames of the missile below the attacking plane . Lichtenstein ' s borrowings from comics mimicked their style while adapting their subject matter . He explained that " Signs and comic strips are interesting as subject matter . There are certain things that are usable , forceful and vital about commercial art . " Rebecca Bengal at PBS wrote that " Whaam ! " ' s graphic clarity exemplifies the ligne claire style associated with Hergé , a cartoonist whose influence Lichtenstein acknowledged . Lichtenstein was attracted to using a cool , formal style to depict emotive subjects , leaving the viewer to interpret the artist ' s intention . He adopted a simplified color scheme and commercial printing - like techniques . The borrowed technique was " representing tonal variations with patterns of colored circles that imitated the half - tone screens of Ben Day dots used in newspaper printing , and surrounding these with black outlines similar to those used to conceal imperfections in cheap newsprint . " Lichtenstein once said of his technique : " I take a cliche and try to organize its forms to make it monumental . " Reception . The painting was , for the most part , well received by art critics when first exhibited . A November 1963 " Art Magazine " review by Donald Judd described " Whaam ! " as one of the " broad and powerful paintings " of the 1963 exhibition at Castelli ' s Gallery . In his review of the exhibition , " The New York Times " art critic Brian O ' Doherty described Lichtenstein ' s technique as " typewriter pointillism . . . that laboriously hammers out such moments as a jet shooting down another jet with a big BLAM " . According to O ' Doherty , the result was " certainly not art , [ but ] time may make it so " , depending on whether it could be " rationalized . . . and placed in line for the future to assimilate as history , which it shows every sign of doing . " The Tate Gallery in London acquired the work in 1966 , leading to heated argument amongst their trustees and some vocal members of the public . The purchase was made from art dealer Ileana Sonnabend , whose asking price of £4 , 665 ( £ in 2018 currency ) was reduced by negotiation to £3 , 940 ( £ in 2018 currency ) . Some Tate trustees opposed the acquisition , among them sculptor Barbara Hepworth , painter Andrew Forge and the poet and critic Herbert Read . Defending the acquisition , art historian Richard Morphet , then an assistant keeper at the Tate , suggested that the painting addresses several issues and painterly styles at the same time : " history painting , Baroque extravagance , and the quotidian phenomenon of mass - circulation comic strips . " " The Times " in 1967 described the acquisition as a " very large and spectacular painting " . The Tate ' s director , Norman Reid , later said that the work aroused more public interest than any of its acquisitions since World War II . In 1968 , " Whaam ! " was included in the Tate ' s first solo exhibition of Lichtenstein ' s work . The showing attracted 52 , 000 visitors , and was organized with the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam , which later hosted the exhibition from November 4 to December 17 , 1967 , before it traveled to three other museums . Analysis and interpretation . For José Pierre , " Whaam ! " represents Lichtenstein ' s 1963 expansion " into the ' epic ' vein " . Keith Roberts , in a 1968 " Burlington Magazine " article , described the explosion as combining " " art nouveau " elegance with a nervous energy reminiscent of Abstract Expressionism " . Wendy Steiner believes the work is Lichtenstein ' s most successful and harmonious comic - based composition . She sees the narrative and graphic elements as complementary : the action and spatial alignment lead the viewer ' s eye from left to right so as to emphasize the relationship between the action and its explosive consequence . The ellipses of the text balloon present a progression which culminates with a " WHAAM ! " . The " coincidence of pictorial and verbal order " are clear for the Western viewer with the explanatory text beginning in the upper left and action vector moving from the left foreground to the right background , culminating in a graphical explosion in tandem with a narrative exclamation . Steiner says the striking incongruity of the two panels — the left panel appearing to be " truncated " , while the right depicts a centralized explosion — enhances the work ' s narrative power . Lichtenstein ' s technique has been characterized by Ernst A . Busche as " the enlargement and unification of his source material . . . on the basis of strict artistic principles " . Extracted from a larger narrative , the resulting stylized image became in some cases a " virtual abstraction " . By recreating their minimalistic graphic techniques , Lichtenstein reinforced the artificial nature of comic strips and advertisements . Lichtenstein ' s magnification of his source material made his impersonally drawn motifs seem all the more empty . Busche also says that although a critique of modern industrial America may be read into these images , Lichtenstein " would appear to accept the environment as revealed by his reference material as part of American capitalist industrial culture " . David McCarthy contrasted Lichtenstein ' s " dispassionate , detached and oddly disembodied " presentation of aerial combat with the work of H . C . Westermann , for whom the experience of military service in World War II instilled a need to horrify and shock . In contrast , Lichtenstein registers his " comment on American civilization " by scaling up inches - high comic book images to the oversized dimensions of history painting . Laura Brandon saw an attempt to convey " the trivialization of culture endemic in contemporary American life " by depicting a shocking scene of combat as a banal Cold War act . Carol Strickland and John Boswell say that by magnifying the comic book panels to an enormous size with dots , " Lichtenstein slapped the viewer in the face with their triviality . " H . H . Arnason noted that " Whaam ! " presents " limited , flat colors and hard , precise drawing , " which produce " a hard - edge subject painting that documents while it gently parodies the familiar hero images of modern America . " The flat and highly finished style of planned brushstrokes can be seen as pop art ' s reaction against the looseness of abstract expressionism . Alastair Sooke says that the work can be interpreted as a symbolic self - portrait in which the pilot in the left panel represents Lichtenstein " vanquishing his competitors in a dramatic art - world dogfight " by firing a missile at the colorful " parody of abstract painting " in the right panel . According to Ernesto Priego , while the work adapts a comic - book source , the painting is neither a comic nor a comics panel , and " its meaning is solely referential and post hoc . " It directs the attention of its audience to features such as genre and printing methods . Visually and narratively , the original panel was the climactic element of a dynamic page composition . Lichtenstein emphasizes the onomatopoeia while playing down articulated speech by removing the speech balloon . According to Priego , " by stripping the comics panel from its narrative context , " Whaam ! " is representative in the realm of fine art of the preference of the image - icon over image - narrative " . " Whaam ! " is sometimes said to belong to the same anti - war genre as Picasso ' s " Guernica " , a suggestion dismissed by Bradford R . Collins . Instead , Collins views the painting as a revenge fantasy against Lichtenstein ' s first wife Isabel , conceived as it was during their bitter divorce battle ( the couple separated in 1961 and divorced in 1965 ) . Legacy . Marla F . Prather observed that " Whaam ! " ' s grand scale and dramatic depiction contributed to its position as a historic work of pop art . With " As I Opened Fire " , Lichtenstein ' s other monumental war painting , " Whaam ! " is regarded as the culmination of Lichtenstein ' s dramatic war - comics works , according to Diane Waldman . It is widely described as either Lichtenstein ' s most famous work , or , along with " Drowning Girl " , as one of his two most famous works . Andrew Edgar and Peter Sedgwick describe it , along with Warhol ' s Marilyn Monroe prints , as one of the most famous works of pop art . Gianni Versace once linked the two iconic pop art images via his gown designs . According to Douglas Coupland , the World Book Encyclopedia used pictures of Warhol ' s Monroes and " Whaam ! " to illustrate its Pop art entry . Comic books were in turn affected by the cultural impact of pop art . By the mid - 1960s , some comic books were displaying a new emphasis on garish colors , emphatic sound effects and stilted dialogue — the elements of comic book style that had come to be regarded as camp — in an attempt to appeal to older , college - age readers who appreciated pop art . Gravett observed that the " simplicity and outdatedness [ of comic books ] were ripe for being mocked " . " Whaam ! " was one of the key works exhibited in a major Lichtenstein retrospective in 2012 – 2013 that was designed , according to Li - mei Hoang , to demonstrate " the importance of Lichtenstein ' s influence , his engagement with art history and his enduring legacy as an artist " . In his review of the Lichtenstein Retrospective at the Tate Modern , Adrian Searle of " The Guardian " — who was generally unenthusiastic about Lichtenstein ' s work — credited the work ' s title with accurately describing its graphic content : " Whaam ! goes the painting , as the rocket hits , and the enemy fighter explodes in a livid , comic - book roar . " " Daily Telegraph " critic Alastair Smart wrote a disparaging review in which he acknowledged Lichtenstein ' s reputation as a leading figure in " Pop Art ' s cheeky assault on the swaggering , self - important Abstract Expressionists " , whose works Smart said " Whaam ! " mimicked by its huge scale . Smart said the work was neither a positive commentary on the fighting American spirit nor a critique , but was notable for marking " Lichtenstein ' s incendiary impact on the US art scene " . Critics have raised concerns over Lichtenstein ' s appropriation , in that he directly references imagery from other sources in " Whaam ! " and other works of the period . Some have denigrated it as mere copying , to which others have countered that Lichtenstein altered his sources in significant , creative ways . In response to claims of plagiarism , the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation has noted that publishers have never sued for copyright infringement , and that they never raised the issue when Lichtenstein ' s comics - derived work first gained attention in the 1960s . Other criticism centers on Lichtenstein ' s failure to credit the original artists of his sources ; Ernesto Priego implicates National Periodicals in the case of " Whaam ! " , as the artists were never credited in the original comic books . In Alastair Sooke ' s 2013 BBC Four documentary that took place in front of " Whaam ! " at the Tate Modern , British comic book artist Dave Gibbons disputed Sooke ' s assertion that Lichtenstein ' s painting improved upon Novick ' s panel , saying : " This to me looks flat and abstracted , to the point of view that to my eyes it ' s confusing . Whereas the original has got a three - dimensional quality to it , it ' s got a spontaneity to it , it ' s got an excitement to it , and a way of involving the viewer that this one lacks . " Gibbons has parodied Lichtenstein ' s derivation of the Novick work .