Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997)

Lichtenstein, Roy (1923- ), American pop art painter, graphic artist, and sculptor, best known for his large-scale renditions of comic-strip art. Born in New York City, Lichtenstein received his master of fine arts at Ohio State University in 1949. His early work was in the abstract expressionist style, but after 1957 he began to experiment with freely interpreted cartoon images from bubble-gum wrappers and with travestied images taken from paintings of the Old West by the American artist Frederick Remington. By 1961 Lichtenstein was completely dedicated to the making of art from mass-produced, merchandising images. His comic-strip paintings, such as Good Morning, Darling (1964, Leo Castelli Gallery, New York City), are blowups of the original cartoon characters, reproduced by hand, with the same technique of benday dots and bright primary colors used in printing. His later works include reproductions of popular-romance characters, stylized landscapes, picture-postcard vulgarizations of classical temples and showed the influence of painters Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. His sculptures also re-create comic-strip effects. He has also produced ceramic works. In 1993 a retrospective of Lichtenstein's work was held at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.