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.
Indian with Pipe
By Roy Lichtenstein
Located in New York, NY
This exceptional oil on canvas by master Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein is an exceptional and unique example of his early pre-pop work. It is signed by the artist, upper right. After m...
Canvas, Oil
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
$13,500
H 40.5 in W 50.5 in D 3 in
“Washington Square Park, 1938” NYC Social Realism Female American Artist Oil
By Dorothy Eisner
Located in Yardley, PA
An exceptional, large, early work by American artist Dorothy Eisner (1906-1984). This painting was recently exhibited at Gracie Mansion in 2019 as part of “She Persists” - a show de...
Canvas, Oil
$44,000
H 15.25 in W 30 in
WPA American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern Postal Workers Deco CT
By Arnold Friedman
Located in New York, NY
WPA American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern Postal Workers Deco CT Arnold Aaron Friedman (American, 1874-1946) "Cancellation Table" 11 1/2 x 26 1/2 inches Oil on Wood ...
Oil, Wood Panel
$4,500
H 20 in W 23 in D 1.75 in
"Canals in Annecy, France" by Emma Fordyce MacRae (1887-1974) American Framed
By Emma Fordyce MacRae
Located in Yardley, PA
A lovely scene of the canals in Annecy, France by renowned American artist Emma Fordyce MacRae (1887-1974). This work highlights the geometric nature of the historic architecture al...
Gesso, Oil, Board
$600
H 16 in W 16 in D 1 in
Bluebird of Innocence Oil Painting on Cotton Canvas, American Modern
By Evy Olsen Halvorsen
Located in Kingston, WA
a reworking of a quieter image with the same child, but children aren't quiet and this needed more vitality, so I added more birds and flowers, anemones. I wanted to evoke an idyllic...
Cotton Canvas, Oil
$90,000
H 48 in W 60 in D 2 in
Three Sisters: large abstract expressionist figural painting & breast feeding
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
FREE DELIVERY to certain areas along the Mid-Atlantic corridor between NJ and VA -- contact me to ask if your area qualifies. Ellen Powell Tiberino, matriarch of the Tiberino artist dynasty that includes her artist-husband Joseph and three artist-children (Raphael, Gabriel, and Ellen), often looked to Black women and girls as subjects, in the contexts of motherhood, pregnancy, and childhood, as well as subjects drawn from her neighborhood communities. Her work is expressionistic and passionate with dramatic gestures and dark colorism in her figures, but it is also intimate and highly personal. At this point in her career, Tiberino had been struggling with cancer, and as a result, her palette became brighter and more colorful than her former dark palette. "Three Sisters" includes Ellen Powell Tiberino’s self-portrait in the front of the composition, nursing an infant. Tiberino’s two sisters, Joyce and Anne, sit behind her. Tiberino likely paints from memory or imagination here, since her four children were well beyond nursing age when she created this painting. "Three Sisters" is likely among the last large-scale canvases Tiberino completed, opting to work on a smaller scale and while seated as her illness progressed. Tiberino ultimately lost her battle in 1992. "Three Sisters" comes from a private Main Line, PA collection, acquired directly from the artist immediately upon its completion. Framed in original wood strip frame. It is in excellent condition. Tiberino graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1959, where she was awarded a prestigious Cresson scholarship to study in Europe. After returning to the US, she lived and worked in New York until she married fellow artist (Joseph) and returned to her hometown of Philadelphia where she continued to create oil paintings, oil pastels drawings, sculptures, murals, and mosaics. In Philadelphia, she was part of social and professional circles that included Moe Brooker, Barbara Bullock, Walter Edmonds, Charles Pridgen, Leroy Johnson, John Simpson, James Dupree...
Canvas, Oil
$1,700
H 36 in W 12 in D 1.5 in
"It's the Rest of the World That is Moving" (2024) by Amy Hutcheson
By Amy Hutcheson
Located in Denver, CO
"He Opened His Hand And I Put My Stories Into It" (2024) is an original, handmade oil painting on canvas, by Amy Hutcheson, that depicts an abstract painting with colorful geometric ...
Canvas, Oil
$44,000
H 15.25 in W 30 in
WPA American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern Postal Workers Deco D
By Arnold Friedman
Located in New York, NY
WPA American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern Postal Workers Deco D Arnold Friedman (1874-1946) "Dispatch" 11 1/2 x 26 1/2 inches Oil on Wood Panel, 1935 Signed, dated,...
Oil, Wood Panel
$2,800
H 30 in W 30 in D 1.5 in
Memory Machine: abstract oil painting w/ organic shapes & vivid colors on red
By Joseph McAleer
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
This is an original oil on canvas painting depicting a system of vividly colored, patterned organic forms against a textured red background. It is signed, dated, and titled on the ba...
Canvas, Oil
$4,238
H 59.06 in W 59.06 in D 0.79 in
COWARD - Contemporary Modern Abstract Painting
By Agata Czeremuszkin-Chrut
Located in Hallein, AT
Agata Czeremuszkin-Chrut was born in 1983 in Czestochowa, Poland. She graduated from the Academy of the Fine Arts in Wroclaw (2008) with the Master degree in Painting. In 2007 she st...
Canvas, Oil
$3,150
H 14 in W 12 in D 2 in
Abstract Oil on Canvas Modern Gestural Figurative Woman Nude blue
By Jessica Benjamin
Located in ALCOY/ALCOI, ES
The Bather Description: Oil on canvas, blue, figurative, nude, abstract, gestural, modern In this vibrant oil painting Jessica Benjamin captures a private moment depicted throughout art history. Through expressive brushwork, and use of color, this painting has a modern vitality that builds upon this artistic tradition. Jessica Benjamin was born in Bloomington, IL and graduated from the New York Academy of Art with his MFA in 2014. Her paintings have been featured on the cover and interiors of three albums by Wynton Marsalis...
Canvas, Oil
$44,000
H 15.25 in W 30 in
WPA American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern Postal Workers Deco SR
By Arnold Friedman
Located in New York, NY
WPA American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern Postal Workers Deco SR Arnold Friedman (American, 1874-1946) "Swing Room" 11 1/2 x 26 1/2 inches Oil on Wood Panel, 1935, ...
Oil, Wood Panel
$5,899
H 59.06 in W 70.87 in D 0.79 in
HUG - Contemporary Modern Abstract Painting, Large Format
By Agata Czeremuszkin-Chrut
Located in Hallein, AT
Agata Czeremuszkin-Chrut was born in 1983 in Czestochowa, Poland. She graduated from the Academy of the Fine Arts in Wroclaw (2008) with the Master degree in Painting. In 2007 she st...
Canvas, Oil, Acrylic
Indian
By Roy Lichtenstein
Located in New York, NY
This oil on canvas by master Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein is an exceptional and unique example of his early work. It is signed and dated in oil, lower left recto. After moving to Cl...
Canvas, Oil
