Road Before the Forest
View Similar Items
Roy LichtensteinRoad Before the Forest1985
1985
About the Item
- Creator:Roy Lichtenstein (1923 - 1997, American)
- Creation Year:1985
- Dimensions:Height: 41 in (104.14 cm)Width: 56 in (142.24 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU151127665572
Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein is one of the principal figures of the American Pop art movement, along with Andy Warhol, James Rosenquist, Claes Oldenburg and Robert Rauschenberg.
Drawing inspiration from comic strips, Lichtenstein appropriated techniques commercial printing in his paintings, introducing a vernacular sensibility to the visual landscape of contemporary art. He employed visual elements such as the halftone dots that comprise a printed image, and a comic-inspired use of primary colors gave his paintings their signature “Pop” palette.
Born and raised in New York City, Lichtenstein enjoyed Manhattan’s myriad cultural offerings and comic books in equal measure. He began painting seriously as a teenager, studying watercolor painting at the Parsons School of Design in the late 1930s, and later at the Art Students League, where he worked with American realist painter Reginald Marsh. He began his undergraduate education at Ohio State University in 1940, and after a three-year stint in the United States Army during World War II, he completed his bachelor’s degree and then his master’s in fine arts. The roots of Lichtenstein’s interest in the convergence of high art and popular culture are evident even in his early years in Cleveland, where in the late 1940s, he taught at Ohio State, designed window displays for a department store and painted his own pieces.
Working at the height of the Abstract Expressionist movement in the 1950s, Lichtenstein deliberately eschewed the sort of painting that was held in high esteem by the art world and chose instead to explore the visual world of print advertising and comics. This gesture of recontextualizing a lowbrow image by importing it into a fine-art context would become a trademark of Lichtenstein’s artistic style, as well as a vehicle for his critique of the concept of good taste. His 1963 painting Whaam! confronts the viewer with an impact scene from a 1962-era issue of DC Comics’ All American Men of War. Isolated from its larger context, this image combines the playful lettering and brightly colored illustration of the original comic with a darker message about military conflict at the height of the Cold War. Crying Girl from the same year featured another of Lichtenstein’s motifs — a woman in distress, depicted with a mixture of drama and deadpan humor. His work gained a wider audience by creating a comic-inspired mural for the New York State Pavilion of the 1964 World's Fair, he went on to be represented by legendary New York gallerist Leo Castelli for 30 years.
In the 1970s and ’80s, Lichtenstein experimented with abstraction and began exploring basic elements of painting, as in this 1989 work Brushstroke Contest. In addition to paintings in which the brushstroke itself became the central subject, in 1984 he created a large-scale sculpture called Brushstrokes in Flight for the Port Columbus International Airport in Ohio. Still Life with Windmill from 1974 and the triptych Cow Going Abstract from 1982 both demonstrate a break from his earlier works where the subjects were derived from existing imagery. Here, Lichtenstein paints subjects more in line with the norms of art history — a pastoral scene and a still life — but he has translated their compositions into his signature graphic style, in which visual elements of printed comics are still a defining feature.
Lichtenstein’s work is represented in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, Tate Modern, and many others. He was awarded National Medal of Arts in 1995, two years before he passed away.
Find a collection of Roy Lichtenstein prints, drawings and more on 1stDibs.
- Japanese MapleBy Helen FrankenthalerLocated in New York, NY2005 Sixteen color Ukiyo-e style woodcut Image/sheet: 26 x 38 in. Edition of 50 Signed, dated and numbered in pencil, lower marginCategory
Early 2000s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Prints
MaterialsPaper, Woodcut
Price Upon Request - Weeping CrabappleBy Helen FrankenthalerLocated in New York, NY2009 Thirty-one color Ukiyo-e style woodcut Image/sheet: 25 1/4 x 37 1/4 in. Edition of 50 Signed, dated and numbered in pencil, lower marginCategory
Early 2000s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Prints
MaterialsHandmade Paper, Woodcut
Price Upon Request - Curves (Positive & Negative)By Osvaldo MariscottiLocated in New York, NY2019 Set of two screenprints in colors, on Rives BFK paper Sheet: 31 x 25 in. (78.7 x 63.5 cm), each Edition of 55 Each signed and numbered in pencil, lower margin Unframed, mintCategory
2010s Minimalist Abstract Prints
MaterialsPaper, Screen
Price Upon Request - Untitled (Red OM18-0302)By Osvaldo MariscottiLocated in New York, NY2018 Screenprint in colors, on Arches Aquarelle paper Sheet: 34 x 26 in. (86.4 x 66 cm) Edition of 40 + 15AP Signed, dated and numbered in pencil, lower marginCategory
2010s Abstract Abstract Prints
MaterialsPaper, Screen
Price Upon Request - Boxer RebellionBy Jean-Michel BasquiatLocated in New York, NY1982-83 / 2018 Screenprint in colors, on Lenox Museum Board Image/sheet: 29 x 39 1/2 in. Edition of 60 Numbered on recto; signed, dated and Estate-stamped on versoCategory
2010s Neo-Expressionist Abstract Prints
MaterialsPaper, Screen
Price Upon Request - FocusBy Osvaldo MariscottiLocated in New York, NY2020 Screenprint in colors, on Arches paper Sheet: 28 1/2 x 38 in. (72.4 x 96.5 cm) Edition of 55 Signed, dated and numbered in pencil, lower margin Unframed, mint conditionCategory
2010s Abstract Abstract Prints
MaterialsPaper, Screen
Price Upon Request
- Blue FaceBy Roy LichtensteinLocated in New York, NYA stunning example of abstracted imagery easily identifiable as the work of Roy Lichtenstein, Blue Face was created by the artist in 1989 as a truly mixed me...Category
20th Century Pop Art Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph, Screen, Woodcut
Price Upon Request - Reflections on CrashBy Roy LichtensteinLocated in New York, NY1990 Lithograph, screenprint on paper and metalised PVC on paper S. 59 1/8 x 75 in. (150.2 x 190.5 cm) Edition of 68 Signed, dated and numbered in pencil, lower marginCategory
1990s Pop Art Abstract Prints
MaterialsPaper, Lithograph, Screen
Price Upon Request - Joe Tilson British Pop Art Screenprint, Color Lithograph 4 Seasons 4 ElementsBy Joe TilsonLocated in Surfside, FLSilkscreen screenprint or Lithograph Hand signed and numbered. An esoteric, mystical, Kabbala inspired print with Hebrew as well as other languages. Joseph Charles Tilson RA (born 2...Category
1970s Pop Art Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph, Screen
- Democratic Party Human Rights Dinner (signed Pop Art print edition of only 100)By Robert RauschenbergLocated in New York, NYRobert Rauschenberg Human Rights Award, 1981 Silkscreen and Lithograph with Collage Embossing on Hodgkins Handmade Paper Pencil signed and numbered 73/100 on the front Silkscreen and Lithograph with Collage Embossing on Hodgkins Handmade Paper Published by the Democratic Party...Category
1980s Pop Art Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph, Screen, Pencil
- Abstract Minimalist Color Silkscreen Print John Willenbecher The Bowery Pop ArtLocated in Surfside, FLJohn Willenbecher On the Bowery, 1969 - 1971 silkscreen on Schoeller's Parole Paper, edition of 100 + 20 A.P. 25.5 x 25.5 inches, signed, numbered 2...Category
1960s Pop Art Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph, Screen
- Abstract Minimalist Color Silkscreen Print Richard Smith On The Bowery Pop ArtBy Richard SmithLocated in Surfside, FLRichard Smith On the Bowery, 1969 - 1971 silkscreen on Schoeller's Parole Paper, edition of 100 + 20 A.P. 25.5 x 25.5 inches, signed, numbered 21/100 Screenprint in color on wove paper Hand signed, published by Edition Domberger, Bonlanden, West Germany (with their blindstamp) Provenance: Collection of Tom Levine On the Bowery, 1971. The portfolio consists of nine screenprints in colors (one with mylar collage), on wove paper, by representative artists of the Pop Art period. Cy Twombly, Robert Ryman, Will Insley, Robert Indiana, Les Levine, John Willenbecher...Category
1960s Pop Art Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph, Screen