Roy Lichtenstein (American, 1923–1997), painter and sculptor, was a leading member of the Pop Art movement. Born in New York City, Lichtenstein attended the Art Students League during his teenage years, before enrolling at Ohio State University to study art. In 1943, Lichtenstein was drafted into the army, serving for three years before returning to school. In 1949 he received an MFA, and continued to teach and to paint in Ohio for several years. His early 1950s works, painted in a European Modernist style, frequently depict uniquely “American” subject matters, including scenes of western expansion and even an adaptation of
Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze’s famous
Washington Crossing the Delaware.
In the 1960s, Lichtenstein moved to New Jersey to teach at Rutgers University, and began his iconic comic strip works, which marked a distinct break with his previous aesthetic. He painted images inspired by newspaper ads and comic strips in both subject matter and style, developing a
technique that mimicked the screen-printed Ben-Day dots used in print media. Lichtenstein was motivated to create works that no one would want to hang on the walls, later commenting that “The one thing everyone hated was commercial art; apparently they didn't hate that enough, either. A solo show of such works at the
Leo Castelli Gallery in 1962 garnered him critical acclaim and notoriety in the art world. His work continued to incorporate
pop culture themes, displaying static images of
figures,
brushstrokes,
landscapes,
mirrors,
reflections, and other subject matters in an ironic style. His later works feature close examinations of illusionism and the representation of reality in art. A very prolific, celebrated, and sought-after artist, Lichtenstein created many public
sculptures during his lifetime, and his work has been the subject of many retrospectives around the world. He died in New York City in 1997, at 74 years old.