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.
Roy Lichtenstein 'Modern Head #2' (Corlett 92) 1970
By Roy Lichtenstein
Located in Miami, FL
ROY LICHTENSTEIN (1923-1997) Lithograph and line-cut in colors with embossing, 1970, signed in pencil, dated and numbered 30/100 (total edition includes seven artist's proofs). This...
Lithograph
MODERN HEAD #5
By Roy Lichtenstein
Located in Aventura, FL
Modern Head #5, from Modern Head Series (C. 95). Hand signed, numbered and dated by the artist. Embossed graphite with die-cut paper overlay. Image size 20 x 11.5 inches. Sheet size ...
Paper, Graphite
$22,500
Litho/Litho Hand Signed Roy Lichtenstein Pop Art Lithograph Edition of 54
By Roy Lichtenstein
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Litho/Litho Lithograph on Special Arjomari paper Signed, dated, and numbered in pencil Publisher: Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles Corlett 101
Lithograph
LITHO/LITHO
By Roy Lichtenstein
Located in Aventura, FL
Hand signed, dated and numbered by the artist. Lithograph in colors on Special Arjomari with the Gemini G.E.L. blindstamps, Los Angeles. Sheet size 35 x 48 in. Image size 28.25 x 43....
Lithograph, Paper
$20,000
Roy Lichtenstein 'Entablature II' (Corlett 139) Signed Screenprint 1976
By Roy Lichtenstein
Located in Miami, FL
ROY LICHTENSTEIN (1923-1997) Roy Lichtenstein's 'Entablature II' is a Screenprint, lithograph and collage in colors with embossing on Rives BFK paper. Signed, dated and numbered in ...
Screen
Entablature III
By Roy Lichtenstein
Located in London, GB
Screenprint and collage with embossing, 1976, on Rives BFK paper, signed and dated in pencil, 'APVII' one of nine artist’s proof, aside from the standard edition of 16, printed and published by Tyler Graphics Ltd., New York with their blindstamp, 74 x 114 cm. (29¼ x 45 in.) Corlett 140 ‘The architectural elements in the Entablature series can be seen as providing the artist with ready-made designs, in much the same way as comic strips and advertisements had provided him with easily recognised motifs in his earlier work.’ (Christoph Grunenberg, July 2000, Tate) Between 1971 and 1976, Lichtenstein produced two series of entablature paintings based on photographs he had taken in New York of 20th century architectural ornaments in Lower Manhattan and, specifically, in the vicinity of Wall Street and 28th Street. During this period, in May 1974, he began to also discuss the creation of the ‘Entablature’ print series with Master Printmaker, Ken Tyler...
Screen
Entablature II, from Entablature Series
By Roy Lichtenstein
Located in London, GB
Screenprint in colours with embossing and collage of gloss copper and mat pink metallic foil, 1976, on Rives BFK paper, signed and dated in pencil, numbered from edition of 30 (there...
Screen
$39,500
Entablature XA Hand Signed Screen Print, Lithograph and Collage, Pop Art, 1976
By Roy Lichtenstein
Located in Aventura, FL
From the Entablature series. Screenprint, lithograph, and collage with embossing on Rives BFK paper. Hand signed and dated in pencil, lower right by Roy Lichtenstein. Numbered 17/1...
Paper, Lithograph, Screen
Price Upon Request
Painting on Blue and Yellow Wall
By Roy Lichtenstein
Located in New York, NY
Created by Roy Lichtenstein in 1984 as a color woodcut and lithograph on Arches 88 paper, Painting on Blue and Yellow Wall is hand-signed, dated, and numbe...
Woodcut, Lithograph
Price Upon Request
Bicentennial, by Roy Lichtenstein
By Roy Lichtenstein
Located in New York, NY
Included in America: The Third Century portfolio, Roy Lichtenstein created Bicentennial as an original color lithograph with screenprint in 1975, conceived to celebrate the 200th ann...
Lithograph, Screen
Price Upon Request
Sweet Dreams, Baby!, Roy Lichtenstein
By Roy Lichtenstein
Located in New York, NY
An early and iconic image by Roy Lichtenstein, Sweet Dreams Baby! is one of the most recognizable of Lichtenstein’s prints and is enormously collectible. Created in 1965 as a screen...
Screen
Price Upon Request
Apple (Poster) -- signed
By Roy Lichtenstein
Located in Missouri, MO
Hand-Signed and dated Lower Right Original screenprint poster in yellow, red, blue an black on white wove paper. Designed by the artist for a traveling exhibition for the Saint Lou...
Screen
Price Upon Request
The Diver
By Roy Lichtenstein
Located in Long Island City, NY
This is an important early painting by Lichtenstein. It will be included in forthcoming Catalogue Raisonne by the Lichtenstein Association. Artist: Roy Lic...
Oil
Price Upon Request
The Oval Office
By Roy Lichtenstein
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Roy Lichtenstein Title: The Oval Office (C. 277) Year: 1992 Medium: Screenprint on Rives, signed, dated and numbered in pencil Edition: 17/175 Image: 30 x 39.25 inches ...
Screen
