Claes Oldenburg Abstract Prints

This vibrant red, blue, orange and yellow lithograph is based on the 1961 Rosenquist oil painting Brighter than the Sun (private collection), with fragmented images from advertising,...

SALE ONE WEEK ONLY Title: Figures Portfolio: 1978 Surrealist Medium: Lithograph on Arches 88 paper Edition: 38 Sheet Size: 31 7/16" x 23 1/2" Image Size: 23 1/2" x 15 1/4" Signature: Hand signed in pencil Reference: Corlett 156 Printed by Gemini G.E.L. printers out of Los Angeles. Roy Fox Lichtenstein was an American pop artist. During the 1960s through the 90’s, along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and James Rosenquist, he became a leading figure in the new art movement. His work defined the premise of pop art through parody. Most of Lichtenstein's best-known works are relatively close, but not exact, copies of comic book panels, a subject he largely abandoned in 1965. Lichtenstein's Still Life paintings, sculptures and drawings, which span from 1972 through the early 1980s, cover a variety of motifs and themes, including the most traditional such as fruit, flowers, and vases. 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. Wham!, and Drowning Girl Look Mickey proved to be his most influential works. His most expensive piece is Masterpiece which was sold for $165 million in January 2017. Lichtenstein received both his Bachelors and Masters at Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio where he taught for ten years. In 1967, he moved back to upstate New York and began teaching again. It was at this time that he adopted the Abstract Expressionist style, being a late convert to this style of painting. Lichtenstein began teaching in upstate New York at the State University of New York at Oswego in 1958. About this time, he began to incorporate hidden images of cartoon characters such as Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny into is abstract works. In 1960, he started teaching at Rutgers University where he was heavily influenced by Allan Kaprow, who was also a teacher at the university. This environment helped reignite his interest in Proto-pop imagery. In 1961, Lichtenstein began his first pop paintings using cartoon images and techniques derived from the appearance of commercial printing. This phase would continue to 1965, and included the use of advertising imagery suggesting consumerism and homemaking. His first work to feature the large-scale use of hard-edged figures and Ben-Day dots was Look Mickey (1961), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C.) This piece came from a challenge from one of his sons, who pointed to a Mickey Mouse comic book and said; "I bet you can't paint as good as that, eh, Dad?" In the same year he produced six other works with recognizable characters from gum wrappers and cartoons. It was at this time that Lichtenstein began to find fame not just in America but worldwide. He moved back to New York to be at the center of the art scene in 1964 to concentrate on his painting. Lichtenstein used oil and Magna (early acrylic) paint in his best known works, such as Drowning Girl (1963), which was appropriated from the lead story in DC Comics’ Secret Hearts No. 83, drawn by Tony Abruzzo. (Drowning Girl now hangs in the Museum of Modern Art, New York.) Drowning Girl also features thick outlines, bold colors and Ben-Day dots, as if created by photographic reproduction. Of his own work Lichtenstein would say that the Abstract Expressionists "put things down on the canvas and responded to what they had done, to the color positions and sizes. My style looks completely different, but the nature of putting down lines pretty much is the same; mine just don't come out looking calligraphic, like Pollock’s or Kline’s. Rather than attempt to reproduce his subjects, Lichtenstein's work tackled the way in which the mass media portrays them. He would never take himself too seriously, however, saying: "I think my work is different from comic strips – but I wouldn't call it transformation; I don't think that whatever is meant by it is important to art.” When Lichtenstein's work was first exhibited, many art critics of the time challenged its originality. His work was harshly criticized as vulgar and empty. The title of a Life magazine article in 1964 asked, "Is He the Worst Artist in the U.S.?" Lichtenstein responded to such claims by offering responses such as the following: "The closer my work is to the original, the more threatening and critical the content. However, my work is entirely transformed in that my purpose and perception are entirely different. I think my paintings are critically transformed, but it would be difficult to prove it by any rational line of argument.” In 1969, Lichtenstein was commissioned by Gunter Sachs to create Composition and Leda and the Swan, for the collector's Pop Art bedroom suite at the Palace Hotel in St. Moritz. In the late 1970s and during the 1980s, Lichtenstein received major commissions for works in public places: the sculptures Lamp (1978) in St. Mary's, Georgia; Mermaid (1979) in Miami Beach; the 26 feet tall Brushstrokes in Flight (1984, moved in 1998) at John Glenn Columbus International Airport; the five-storey high Mural with Blue Brushstroke (1984–85) at the Equitable Center, New York and El Cap de Barcelona (1992) in Barcelona. In 1994, Lichtenstein created the 53-foot-long, enamel-on-metal Times Square Mural in Times Square subway station. In 1977, he was commissioned by BMW to paint a Group 5 Racing Version of the BMW 320i for the third installment in the BMW Art Car Project. The DreamWorks Records logo was his last completed project. "I'm not in the business of doing anything like that (a corporate logo) and don't intend to do it again," allows Lichtenstein. "But I know Mo Ostin and David Geffen and it seemed interesting. In 1996 the The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. became the largest single repository of the artist's work when Lichtenstein donated 154 prints and 2 books. The Art Institute of Chicago has several important works by Lichtenstein in its permanent collection, including Brushstroke with Spatter (1966) and Mirror No. 3 (Six Panels) (1971). The personal holdings of Lichtenstein's widow, Dorothy Lichtenstein, and of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation number in the hundreds. In Europe, the Museum Ludwig in Cologne has one of the most comprehensive Lichtenstein holdings with Takka Takka (1962), Nurse (1964), Compositions I (1964), besides the Frankfurt Museum fur Modern Kunst with We Rose Up slowly (1964), and Yellow and Green Brushstrokes...

Keith Haring Fun Gallery 1983: Original 1983 Keith Haring illustrated exhibition poster published on the occasion of Haring's historic 1983 show at the Fun Gallery in the East Village. A classic array of early Haring imagery that reveals red and black interlocking figures. A rare example in very good overall vintage condition. Offset lithograph in colors on smooth wove paper. 23 x 29 inches. Only some minor signs of handling; in otherwise very good overall vintage condition with strong colors; one of the better examples we've come across. Stored away from light; never mounted or framed. Unsigned from an edition of unknown; scarce. Catalog Raisonne: Keith Haring: Posters (Prestel Publishing). References: Included in the collection of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. About the Fun Gallery: Historic, short-lived, East Village gallery known for giving Keith Haring, Basquiat & Kenny Scharf some of their first solo shows. “FUN Gallery was a place where neighborhood kids, downtown artists, b-boys, rock, film, and rap stars mixed with museum directors art historians and uptown collectors at wild openings featuring artists like Futura, Fab 5...

Artist: Keith Haring (1958-1990) Title: Safe Sex! (Gundel 60) Year: 1987-1988 Medium: Offset lithograph on paper mounted on rice paper Size: 29.52 x 27.36 inc...

Artist: Robert Rauschenberg Title: Quarry Medium: Offset lithograph in colors Year: 1968 Edition: 500 Frame Size: 41 1/2" x 33" Sheet Size: 35 1/2" x 26 1/2" Signature: Signed in the...

Basquiat: Vrej Baghoomian gallery New York, 1989: Vintage original folding announcement card to Jean-Michel Basquiat at Vrej Baghoomian Gallery New York: 10/21 to 11/25, 1989. Pictured on front side is an image of Basquiat's iconic, 'Red Warrior.' A rare, highly collectible Basquiat ephemera piece that works well in any collection. Off-set printed gallery announcement. 8.75 x 5.75 inches (folded closed). Light signs of handling; otherwise very good overall vintage condition. Published by Vrej Baghoomian Gallery, New York, 1989. Unsigned from an edition of unknown. Scarce. Jean-Michel Basquiat rose to success during the 1980s. Basquiat’s paintings are largely responsible for elevating graffiti artists into the realm of the New York gallery scene. His spray-painted crowns and scribbled words referenced everything from his Haitian and Puerto Rican heritage, to political issues, pop-culture icons, and Biblical verse. The gestural marks and expressive nature of his work not only aligned him with the street art of Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf, but also the Neo-Expressionists Julian Schnabel and David Salle. “If you wanna talk about influence, man, then you've got to realize that influence is not influence,” he said of his process. After quickly rising to fame in the early 1980s, Basquiat was befriended by many celebrities and artists, including Andy Warhol, with whom he made several collaborative works. At only 27, his troubles with fame and drug addiction led to his tragic death from a heroin overdose on August 12, 1988 in New York, NY. The Whitney Museum of American Art held the artist’s first retrospective from October 1992 to February 1993. Related Categories: Basquiat Tony Shafrazi. Basquiat ephemera. Basquiat poster. Basquiat prints...

Andy Warhol Original vintage Christmas Card, ca. 1957 Offset lithograph card Plate signed on the front (see close up image) Unnumbered Frame included Offset lithograph card, ca. 1957...

Jim Dine Jim Dine Paintings", Pace Gallery poster, 1979 Offset lithograph poster on lithographic paper Signed in plate, with the Pace Editions, INC stamp Limited Edition 500 30 × 38...

Jasper Johns Target with Four Faces, 1968 Offset lithograph poster for Merce Cunningham Dance Company Limited Edition of 300 (unsigned and unnumbered) 35 × 23 inches Printed by by U...

Christo Wrapped Paris Review (Deluxe hand signed edition), 1982 Lithograph and offset lithograph Hand signed and numbered 244/250 by Christo on th...

Takashi Murakami Superflat Exhibition Poster 1999: Rare 1990s exhibit poster designed by Murakami and published by Marianne Boesky Gallery New York...

Ed Ruscha On the Road (10 sandwiches with bread and salami) (Hand signed and dated by Ed Ruscha), 2010 Letterpress on paper with die-cut photograph tipped in by hand to a blind debos...