Roy Lichtenstein

A key figure in the Pop art movement and beyond, Roy Lichtenstein grounded his profoundly inventive career in imitation—beginning by borrowing images from comic books and advertisements in the early 1960s, and eventually encompassing those of everyday objects, artistic styles, and art history itself. Referring to Lichtenstein’s equalizing treatment of the subjects he chose for his art, Richard Hamilton, a fellow Pop artist, wrote in 1968: “Parthenon, Picasso or Polynesian maiden are reduced to the same kind of cliché by the syntax of the print: reproducing a Lichtenstein is like throwing a fish back into water.”1
Lichtenstein later recalled that 1961, the year he completed Girl with Ball, marked a break with both his own abstract style and “prevailing taste” in the art world. “Although almost anything seemed to be fair subject matter for art,” he recalled, “commercial art and particularly cartooning were not considered to be among those possibilities.”2 The figure from Girl with Ball came from a printed advertisement for the Mount Airy Lodge, in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains, and he based another painting, Drowning Girl, on a comic book cover. In these two paintings and throughout his other work, Lichtenstein would copy the source image by hand, adjusting its composition to suit his narrative or formal aims, and then trace this altered sketch onto the canvas, aided by a projector.
In this rigorously manual process, he used perforated templates to replicate and often exaggerate the dot patterning commonly used in printing imagery. Known as Ben-Day dots, this patterning became a signature element of his style, which incorporated the look of mechanical reproduction into the fine-art world of painting. His transformations of the source image typically included reducing the color palette to saturated primaries, eliminating incidental details, heightening contrasts, and “emphasizing the pictorial clichés and graphic codes of commercially printed imagery.”3 In Drowning Girl, for example, Lichtenstein cropped out much of the original scene and modified the statement in the text bubble, amplifying this image of a damsel in distress.
Lichtenstein soon turned his attention from the clichés of commercial print culture to the aesthetic clichés of high art.4 With bold, graphic simulations of brushstrokes in prints like Brushstroke and Brushstrokes, for example, he parodied the autographic mark-making of Abstract Expressionism. Yet where Jackson Pollock had been seen to imbue his skeins of paint with a bravura energy and force, Lichtenstein turned that device into something clichéd, commercial, and reproducible. “Visible brushstrokes in a painting convey a sense of grand gesture; but in my hands, the brushstroke becomes a depiction of a grand gesture,” he later said.5
Art history proved an enduringly rich field for Lichtenstein’s transformations. Concurrent with his Brushstrokes series were explorations of the landscape genre and, in 1969, two volleys at Claude Monet. Monet had also worked serially, devoting multiple canvases to a sustained study of the changing sun as it moved across the facade of the Rouen Cathedral or haystacks in a field. With his Cathedral Series and Haystack Series, Lichtenstein reprised those motifs in his signature Ben-Day dots, making Impressionism, in his words, “industrial.”6 In Artist's Studio “The Dance”, Henri Matisse’s Dance (II) fills the back of a studio suffused with additional references to the artist, from the lemons (a favored motif) to the blanched driftwood (echoing the dancers’ sinewy bodies) to the musical notes streaming in the open window. In other paintings from this series, Lichtenstein included reproductions of his own work, beginning a lasting practice of self-quotation.
In 1992, Lichtenstein expanded his representational system into a room-sized canvas, Interior with Mobile. Painted in almost exclusively primary colors outlined in solid black, with space described in planes of unmodulated color, stripes, and Ben-Day dots, it was relentlessly flat, yet large enough to walk into—an artificial space that pretended, through its size, to be real. Throughout his career, Lichtenstein confounded such oppositions—between reality and artificiality, high art and mass culture, abstraction and figuration, and the manual and mechanical—to reveal their interdependence.
Introduction by Natalie Dupêcher, independent scholar, 2018
Richard Hamilton, “Roy Lichtenstein,” Studio International (January 1968): 23.
Roy Lichtenstein, “A Review of My Work Since 1961—A Slide Presentation” (1995), reprinted in Roy Lichtenstein, ed. Graham Bader (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2009), 58.
James Rondeau and Sheena Wagstaff, “Introduction,” in Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2012, exhibition catalogue), 22.
Carolyn Lanchner, Roy Lichtenstein (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2009), 5.
Roy Lichtenstein, quoted in John Coplans, “Interview: Roy Lichtenstein” (1970), in Roy Lichtenstein, ed. Graham Bader, 36.
- Introduction
- Roy Fox Lichtenstein (; October 27, 1923 – September 29, 1997) was an American pop artist. During the 1960s, along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and James Rosenquist among others, he became a leading figure in the new art movement. His work defined the premise of pop art through parody. Inspired by the comic strip, Lichtenstein produced precise compositions that documented while they parodied, often in a tongue-in-cheek manner. His work was influenced by popular advertising and the comic book style. His artwork was considered to be "disruptive". He described pop art as "not 'American' painting but actually industrial painting". His paintings were exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City. Whaam! and Drowning Girl are generally regarded as Lichtenstein's most famous works. Drowning Girl, Whaam!, and Look Mickey are regarded as his most influential works. His most expensive piece is Masterpiece, which was sold for $165 million in January 2017.
- Wikidata
- Q151679
- Introduction
- Roy Lichtenstein attended classes at the Parsons School of Design and Art Students League before enrolling in the Fine Arts program at Ohio State in 1940. He was drafted into the United States Army, but was discharged and returned to Ohio in 1946 to finish his master's degree. In 1957 he accepted a teaching position at the State University of New York in Oswego, all the while pursuing his art career and gradually shifting his focus towards Expressionism. He began teaching at Rutgers University in 1960, and by 1961, he had created his first paintings of cartoon and comic strip icons with his trademark use of Benday dots. By 1964, Lichtenstein was one of Pop art's most recognized, yet controversial, artists.
- Nationality
- American
- Gender
- Male
- Roles
- Artist, Decorative Artist, Painter, Sculptor
- Names
- Roy Lichtenstein, Roy Fox Lichtenstein
- Ulan
- 500013596
Exhibitions
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412: Domestic Disruption
Ongoing
MoMA
Collection gallery
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412: From Soup Cans to Flying Saucers
Oct 21, 2019–Sep 20, 2020
MoMA
Collection gallery
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407: Frank O’Hara, Lunchtime Poet
Ongoing
MoMA
Collection gallery
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The Long Run
Nov 11, 2017–May 5, 2019
MoMA
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From the Collection:
1960–1969 Mar 26, 2016–Mar 19, 2017
MoMA
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Roy Lichtenstein has
105 exhibitionsonline.
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Roy Lichtenstein Girl with Ball 1961
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Roy Lichtenstein On (plate 11) from The International Anthology of Contemporary Engraving: The International Avant-Garde, Volume 5: America Discovered (Anthologia internazionale dell'incisione contemporanea: L'Avanguardia internazionale: Volume 5: Scoperta dell'America) 1962, published 1964
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Roy Lichtenstein Baked Potato 1962
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Roy Lichtenstein Tire 1962
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Roy Lichtenstein Drowning Girl 1963
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Roy Lichtenstein Foot Medication 1963
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Various Artists, Pierre Alechinsky, Karel Appel, Enrico Baj, Alan Davie, Jim Dine, Öyvind Fahlström, Sam Francis, Robert Indiana, Alfred Jensen, Asger Jorn, Allan Kaprow, Kiki (Kiki O. K.) Kogelnik, Alfred Leslie, Roy Lichtenstein, Joan Mitchell, Claes Oldenburg, Mel Ramos, Robert Rauschenberg, Jean-Paul Riopelle, James Rosenquist, Antonio Saura, Kimber Smith, K.R.H. Sonderborg, Walasse Ting, Bram van Velde, Andy Warhol, Tom Wesselmann 1¢ Life 1963–64, published 1964
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Roy Lichtenstein Girl (double page headpiece, pages 118 and 119) from 1¢ Life 1963, published 1964
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Various Artists, Ad Reinhardt, Robert Indiana, Larry Poons, Roy Lichtenstein, Stuart Davis, Robert Motherwell, Ellsworth Kelly, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, George Ortman X + X (Ten Works by Ten Painters) 1964
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Roy Lichtenstein Sandwich and Soda from X + X (Ten Works by Ten Painters) 1964
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Roy Lichtenstein Seascape I from New York Ten 1964, published 1965
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Roy Lichtenstein Pistol 1964
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George Brecht, Allan D'Arcangelo, Jim Dine, Stephen Durkee, Lette Eisenhauer, Stanley Fisher, Sam Goodman, Red Grooms, Robert Indiana, Allan Kaprow, Roy Lichtenstein, Boris Lurie, Claes Oldenburg, James Rosenquist, George Segal, Richard Stankiewicz, Wayne Thiebaud, Andy Warhol, Robert Watts, Robert Whitman, Various Artists The International Anthology of Contemporary Engraving: The International Avant-Garde, Volume 5: America Discovered (Anthologia internazionale dell'incisione contemporanea: L'Avanguardia internazionale: Volume 5: Scoperta dell'America) 1962–64, published 1964
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Roy Lichtenstein Finger Print 1964
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Roy Lichtenstein Landscape with Clouds 1964
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Roy Lichtenstein Temple 1964
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Roy Lichtenstein Foot and Hand 1964
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Roy Lichtenstein Turkey Shopping Bag 1964
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Roy Lichtenstein Study for Tension 1964
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Various Artists, Tom Wesselmann, George Segal, Claes Oldenburg, Roy Lichtenstein, Mon Levinson, Robert Kulicke, Nicholas Krushenick, Helen Frankenthaler, Jim Dine, Richard Anuszkiewicz New York Ten 1964–65, published 1965
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Roy Lichtenstein Brushstroke 1965
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Roy Lichtenstein Moonscape from 11 Pop Artists, Volume I 1965, published 1966
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Roy Lichtenstein Reverie from 11 Pop Artists, Volume II 1965, published 1966
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Roy Lichtenstein Sweet Dreams, Baby! from 11 Pop Artists, Volume III 1965, published 1966
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Roy Lichtenstein Roy Lichtenstein, November 20 - December 16, 1965, Leo Castelli 1965
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Roy Lichtenstein This Must Be the Place 1965
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Allan D'Arcangelo, Jim Dine, Allen Jones, Gerald Laing, Roy Lichtenstein, Peter Phillips, Mel Ramos, James Rosenquist, Andy Warhol, John Wesley, Tom Wesselmann, Various Artists 11 Pop Artists 1966
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Various Artists, Allan D'Arcangelo, Jim Dine, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, George Segal, Andy Warhol, Tom Wesselmann 7 Objects in a Box 1965–66, published 1966
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Roy Lichtenstein Sunrise from 7 Objects in a Box 1965, published 1966
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Roy Lichtenstein The Paris Review 1966
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Roy Lichtenstein Study for Modern Painting with Bolt 1966
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Roy Lichtenstein Lincoln Center / September 12-22 1966 / 4th New York Film Festival / Philarmonic Hall 1966
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Roy Lichtenstein Modern Painting with Bolt 1967
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Various Artists, Nell Blaine, Norman Bluhm, Joe Brainard, John Button, Giorgio Cavallon, Allan D'Arcangelo, Helen Frankenthaler, Jane Freilicher, Michael Goldberg, Philip Guston, Grace Hartigan, Al Held, Jasper Johns, Matsumi Kanemitsu, Alex Katz, Elaine de Kooning, Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Alfred Leslie, Roy Lichtenstein, Marisol (Marisol Escobar), Joan Mitchell, Robert Motherwell, Reuben Nakian, Barnett Newman, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, Larry Rivers, Niki de Saint Phalle, Jane Wilson Preparatory drawings for In Memory of My Feelings 1967
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Roy Lichtenstein Preparatory drawing for In Memory of My Feelings 1967
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Roy Lichtenstein Preparatory drawing for In Memory of My Feelings 1967
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Roy Lichtenstein Aspen Winter Jazz 1967
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Various Artists, Saul Steinberg, Henry Pearson, Robert Motherwell, Richard Lindner, Roy Lichtenstein, Willem de Kooning, Ellsworth Kelly, Sam Francis, Louise Nevelson 9 1966–67, published 1967
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Roy Lichtenstein Explosion from 9 1967
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Various Artists, Lee Bontecou, Jasper Johns, Donald Judd, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Morris, Larry Poons, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol Ten from Leo Castelli 1967
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Roy Lichtenstein Fish and Sky from Ten from Leo Castelli 1967
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Roy Lichtenstein Ten Landscapes 1967
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Roy Lichtenstein Landscape 1 from Ten Landscapes 1967
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Roy Lichtenstein Landscape 2 from Ten Landscapes 1967
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Roy Lichtenstein Landscape 3 from Ten Landscapes 1967
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Roy Lichtenstein Landscape 4 from Ten Landscapes 1967
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Roy Lichtenstein Landscape 5 from Ten Landscapes 1967
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Roy Lichtenstein Landscape 6 from Ten Landscapes 1967
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