ROY LICHTENSTEIN
Roy Lichtenstein
Collage for CARE Poster
(unique study for an edition of lithographs)
1993
Acrylic, tape, and printed paper collage on board
52″ x 38-1/8″ (132.1 x 96.8 cm)
Framed: 54-5/8″ x 40-3/4″ (138.7 x 103.5 cm)
Roy Lichtenstein (1923 – 1997) was an internationally acclaimed American Pop Artist whose work appropriated images from mass media and advertising in bold, primary colors. His highly intelligent interpretation of comic books and pop culture is expressed through witty, restrained irony and perfectly balanced composition. Lichtenstein questioned categories of high and low art, embracing imagery accessible to everyone and meticulously reproducing the effects of industrial printing techniques by hand. Although his artwork was often met with resistance throughout his career, Lichtenstein is now regarded as one of the defining figures of Pop Art.
Roy Lichtenstein was born in New York City in 1923. By age 14 he was spending Saturday mornings painting at the Parson’s School of Design and in 1939 he dedicated a summer to studying art at the Art Students’ League in New York City with Reginald Marsh.
After serving in the United States Army During World War II, Lichtenstein returned to school and received his master’s from Ohio State University in 1949. Initially, Lichtenstein struggled to define himself against the dominance of Abstract Expressionism in New York. His first experiment with Pop Art was in 1956 when he created the iconic Ten Dollar Bill. However, this depiction was still indebted to older forms of modernism and the conventions of analytical cubism.
Inspired by his children, and his post-graduate experience designing commercial and industrial graphics, Lichtenstein experimented with appropriating the subject matter of comic books and cartoons. However, it wasn’t until he embraced the flat, bright style of the source material itself that his work truly began to define the new category of Pop Art. His 1961 Look Mickey (Partial and promised gift to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.) represents his earliest translation of popular media into oil paint. Throughout his career he continued to refine his use of flat planes of color, precise contour, and mechanically rendered shading in order to call attention to popular media with a minimum of pictorial means.
Lichtenstein prepared popular content for the canvas through an arduous process of sketching and collage. Working to achieve a machine-made aesthetic, he fastidiously reproduced the Ben Day dot shading system with a level of finish that ultimately erases the artist’s hand. Lichtenstein’s reputation was also established through his innovative printmaking techniques, which produced complex works combining lithography, silkscreen, woodcut, and etching.
Lichtenstein died in New York in 1997 but remains a foundational figure to any consideration of the Pop Art movement.
2013 – “Lichtenstein: A Retrospective,” Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom
2013 – “The Pop Object: The Still Life Tradition in Pop Art,” Acquavella Galleries, Inc., New York, New York
2012 – “Roy Lichtenstein,” The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
2012 – “Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective,” The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
2012 – “Roy Lichtenstein,” The University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Lethbridge, Alberta
2011 – “Roy Lichtenstein,” Gallery Tagboat , Tokyo, Japan
2011 – “Roy Lichtenstein: Black & White 1961 – 1968,” Albertina, Vienna, Austria
2010 – “Roy Lichtenstein: Meditations on Art,” Museo Triennale, Milan, Italy
2010 – “Roy Lichtenstein: Still Lifes,” Gagosian Gallery, New York, New York
2010 – “Roy Lichtenstein: Kunst als Motiv,” Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
2009 – “Lichtenstein: in Process,” Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, Tennessee
2008 – “Ruscha and Pop: Icons of the 1960s,” Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, New Hampshire
2007 – “Art Market Now,” The Columns, Seoul, South Korea
2006 – “Picasso to Pop: Aspects of Modern Art,” The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut
2005 – “Pollock To Pop: America’s Brush With Dali” Salvador Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida
2004 – “Roy Lichtenstein: All About Art,” Hayward Gallery, London, United Kingdom
2004 – Neue Nationalgalerie, Das MoMA, Berlin, Germany
2004 – “Dots, Stripes and Strokes,” Andipa Gallery, London, United Kingdom
2003 – “Roy Lichtenstein: Sculpture on the Roof Metropolitan Museum of Art,” New York, New York
2003 – Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
2002 – Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany
2002 – Tate Liverpool, United Kingdom
2001 – Gagosian Gallery, New York, New York
2001 – Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, New York
2001 – “Roy Lichtenstein: Inside-Outside Museum of Contemporary Art,” North Miami, Florida
2000 – “Roy Lichtenstein: Reflections/ Riflessi Chiostro Del Bramante,” Rome, Italy
2000 – Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, New York
1999 – “Roy Lichtenstein: Interiors Museum of Contemporary Art,” Chicago, Illinois
1999 – Lawrence Rubin, Zurich, Switzerland
1999 – San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
1998 – “Roy Lichtenstein,” Foundation Beyler, Basel, Switzerland
1998 – Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia
1997 – “Roy Lichtenstein: Man Hit by the 21st Century,” The Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
1994 – “Roy Lichtenstein,” Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York
1993 – Galerie Friebe, Lüdenscheid, Germany
1989 – “Roy Lichtenstein: The Mirror Paintings,” Mary Boone Gallery, New York, New York
1988 – “Lichtenstein’s Picassos: 1962-1964,” Gagosian Gallery, New York, New York
1987 – Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas
1984 – “Roy Lichtenstein: Eight New Paintings,” Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
1980 – “Roy Lichtenstein Graphic Work: 1970-1980,” Whitney Museum of American Art, Whitney Downtown Branch, New York, New York
1978 – “Roy Lichtenstein: The Modern Work 1965-1970,” Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts
1976 – “Roy Lichtenstein,” School of Visual Arts, New York, New York
1975 – Centre national d’art contemporain, Paris, France
1975 – Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, Germany
1974 – “Roy Lichtenstein,” Galerie Mikro, Berlin, Germany
1972 – Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas
1971 – “Roy Lichtenstein: Mirror Paintings,” Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, New York
1970 – “Roy Lichtenstein,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois
1969 – “Roy Lichtenstein,” Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York
1968 – “Roy Lichtenstein,” The Tate Gallery, London, United Kingdom
1967 – Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, California
1967 – Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
1966 – Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
1964 – Gallery Ileana Sonnabend, Paris, France
1962 – “Roy Lichtenstein,” Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, New York
1962 – “New Painting of Common Objects,” Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, California
1951 – “Roy Lichtenstein,” Carlebach Gallery, New York, New York
NPR – “One Dot at a Time, Lichtenstein Made Art Pop” by Susan Stamberg
Archives of American Art – “Oral History Interview with Roy Lichtenstein, 1963 Nov. 15-1964 Jan. 15” by Richard Brown Baker
SFMOMA – “SFMOMA Presents Major Roy Lichtenstein Exhibition”
BBC – “Roy Lichtenstein: Paintings” Slideshow
Yahoo! News – “Art Institute of Chicago Hosts Lichtenstein Show” by Caryn Rousseau
Yale Press Log – “Roy Lichtenstein’s Love Affair with Chinese Landscape” by Yale University Press
The Guardian – “Lichtenstein: A Retrospective – Review” by Laura Cumming
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