Roy Lichtenstein

Born in New York in 1923, Roy Lichtenstein went to Ohio State University in 1940. His studies were interrupted when he was drafted into the army but he returned to Ohio State to complete his art degree and to teach there for five years.

Until 1957, he earned his living as a commercial artist. He painted his first fully realized cartoon painting (“Look Mickey”) in 1961 and his landmark one man show at Leo Castelli's New York gallery was in 1962.

The subject matter refers affectionately (and often humorously) to objects already translated into a form considerably removed from the “real thing”. Most famously, Lichtenstein's sources are comic books, cartoons and advertising. He also appropriated works by other artists such as Picasso, Monet and Matisse. He preferred to work from sources such as these. He said that even when his work was not derived from other pictures, it always seemed to be.

Having established his subject matter, Lichtenstein treated the work as an abstract composition. He would vary the shapes and their positioning, the areas of pure colour, the thickness of lines and other pictorial elements to achieve the effects he intended and to unify the elements. He did not merely replicate pre-existing images. The scale of Lichtenstein's work is often large and his signature work uses a vocabulary of broad areas of un-modulated primary colour and Ben Day dots or stripes to indicate half tones.

Printmaking was an integral part of Lichtenstein's art from the outset of his career. He created screenprints, woodcuts, etchings, aquatints and lithographs, sometimes combining techniques in a single print. He collaborated closely with a small number of carefully selected printmaking studios.

Lichtenstein represented the United States at the Venice Biennale in 1966. He exhibited at galleries throughout the world and was awarded Honorary Doctorates by numerous universities. His work is held in public collections throughout the United States , Europe and Asia .

To find out more see:
Mary Lee Corlett (2002) The Prints of Roy Lichtenstein: A Catalogue Raisonne 1948-1997, Hudson Hills , New York