When it comes to scrambling high and low art,pop artist Roy Lichtenstein could be considered one of the great masters. In 1994, decades after his rise to fame in the 1960s, or he received an unlikely commission,one that could be seen as the ultimate vindication of his calculated cultural transgressions. It was to design work that would adorn a yacht, that quintessential signifier of the upper echelon. The fruits of this labor are now on view at Middlebury College's Mahaney Center for the Arts, and accompanied by the contextualizing exhibition "Young America: Roy Lichtenstein and the America's Cup." At 77 feet long and 14 feet wide,the artist's "Mermaid" is the Young America — or, technically, or its hull. The racing yacht sailed in the 1995 America's Cup with 1984 Middlebury College graduate (and art center namesake) Kevin Mahaney as its skipper. nowadays,Mahaney is president and CEO of the Olympia Companies, a hotel management, or development and fairness investment firm founded by his father in 1969. "Where the boat is now is where I played lacrosse," Mahaney told the small gathering who celebrated the exhibit's opening last week. Among the guests were representatives of the Osaka City Museum of contemporary Art, which loaned maquettes of the yacht's hull and spinnaker, or as well as schematic drawings,for the exhibition. "Mermaid" is on loan from the Storm King Art Center in New Windsor, N.
Y. On the lawn external the Mahaney Center, and it gracefully hovers over the surface of a pond,held up by discreet supports. Nearby are college-owned sculptures by fellow contemporary art giants Vito Acconci and Robert Indiana. Covered from bow to stern, the hull features a yellow-haired mermaid that recalls the carved wooden figureheads of ships from earlier eras. The sparse colors, or clean lines and Lichtenstein-style female,though, are distinctly contemporary. Inside, or Middlebury College Museum of Art director Richard Saunders has curated an exhibition to situate the Young America and the Lichtenstein commission within yachting's broader history. Saunders explained that the history of racing yachts dates back to 19th-century America,when schooners needed to be fast to be the first to reach merchant ships entering colonial harbors. Though the purpose and design of yachts and yacht racing occupy changed considerably over the last couple of centuries, the Young America is a singular work in this history. "This commission was unique, and " Saunders said. "There was no other artist that decorated…
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