Roy Fox Lichtenstein was an American artist. A leading figure of the Pop Art movement, he is best known for his large-scale paintings inspired by comic books, advertisements, and mass-produced imagery. Lichtenstein's art is represented in major museum collections worldwide, and he remains one of the most influential and recognizable artists of the 20th century.
Paintings by Roy Lichtenstein
M-Maybe (1965)
M-Maybe is a 1965 pop art painting by Roy Lichtenstein. It is one of his romance comics-based works.
Lichtenstein's first solo show at The Leo Castelli Gallery in February 1962 sold out before opening. Engagement Ring sold for $1200 and Blam sold for $1000. Prices for his work rose quickly. In 1965, German collector Peter Ludwig asked Castelli, what price Lichtenstein might accept to sell M-Maybe from his personal collection. By then, the going rate for a Lichtenstein was $6000 and Castelli estimated $12,000. Ludwig offered Lichtenstein $30,000 to purchase the work.
Look Mickey (1961)
Look Mickey (also known as Look Mickey!) is a 1961 oil on canvas painting by Roy Lichtenstein. Widely regarded as the bridge between his abstract expressionism and pop art works, it is notable for its ironic humor and aesthetic value as well as being the first example of the artist's employment of Ben-Day dots, speech balloons and comic imagery as a source for a painting. The painting was bequeathed to the Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art upon Lichtenstein's death.
Building on his late 1950s drawings of comic strip characters, Look Mickey marks Lichtenstein's first full employment of painterly techniques to reproduce almost faithful representations of pop culture and so satirize and comment upon the then developing process of mass production of visual imagery. In this, Lichtenstein pioneered a motif that became influential not only in 1960s pop art but continuing to the work of artists today. Lichtenstein borrows from a Donald Duck illustrated story book, showing Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck during a fishing mishap. However, he makes significant alterations to the original source, including modifying the color scheme and perspective and adding a speech balloon, changing the original joke.
El Cap de Barcelona (1992)
El Cap de Barcelona (1991–1992) is a Pop sculpture created by American artist Roy Lichtenstein for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Its English title is Brushstroke Head IV or Barcelona Head
The sculpture was Lichtenstein's first outdoor work using glazed ceramic tile. It is a reference to Antoni Gaudí and Josep Maria Jujol's trencadís (broken tile) mosaic technique.
Whaam! (1997)
Whaam! is a 1963 diptych painting by the American artist Roy Lichtenstein. It is one of the best-known works of pop art, and among Lichtenstein's most important paintings. Whaam! was first exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City in 1963, and purchased by the Tate Gallery, London, in 1966. It has been on permanent display at Tate Modern since 2006.
The left-hand panel shows a fighter plane firing a rocket that, in the right-hand panel, hits a second plane which explodes in flames. Lichtenstein adapted the image from several comic-book panels, with the primary source being a panel illustrated by Irv Novick from a 1962 war comic book. Lichtenstein transformed the source by presenting it as a diptych while altering the relationship of the graphical and narrative elements. Whaam! is regarded for the temporal, spatial and psychological integration of its two panels. The painting's title is integral to the action and impact of the painting, and displayed in large onomatopoeia in the right panel.
Grrrrrrrrrrr!! (1965)
Grrrrrrrrrrr!! is a 1965 oil and Magna on canvas painting by Roy Lichtenstein. Measuring 68 in × 56.125 in (172.7 cm × 142.6 cm), it was bequeathed to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum collection from Lichtenstein's estate. It depicts a head-on representation of an angry dog growling with the onomatopoeic expression "Grrrrrrrrrrr!!". The work was derived from Our Fighting Forces, which also served as the source for other military dog paintwork by Lichtenstein.
The Lichtenstein Foundation notes that the inspiration for this painting is a frame of Our Fighting Forces #66 (February 1962), which was published by National Periodical Publications (now DC Comics). In that frame only a portion of the dog's head is visible and the speech balloon says "Grrrrr!" In addition to the painting itself, Lichtenstein produced a small 5.75 in × 4.5 in (14.6 cm × 11.4 cm) graphite on paper study.
Girl with Ball (1961)
Girl with Ball is a 1961 painting by Roy Lichtenstein. It is an oil on canvas Pop art work that is now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, after being owned for several decades by Philip Johnson. It is one of Lichtenstein's earliest Pop art works and is known for its source, which is a newspaper ad that ran for several decades and which was among Lichtenstein's earliest works sourced from pop culture.
Girl with Ball was exhibited at Lichtenstein's first solo exhibition and was displayed in Newsweek's review of the show. This work significantly alters the original source and is considered exemplary of Lichtenstein's works that exaggerate the mechanically produced appearance although the result of his painterly work. It is an enduring depiction of the contemporary beauty figure.
Drowning Girl (1963)
Drowning Girl is a 1963 American painting in oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas by Roy Lichtenstein, based on original art by Tony Abruzzo. The painting is considered among Lichtenstein's most significant works, perhaps on a par with his acclaimed 1963 diptych Whaam!. One of the most representative paintings of the pop art movement, Drowning Girl was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in 1971.
The painting has been described as a "masterpiece of melodrama", and is one of the artist's earliest images depicting women in tragic situations, a theme to which he often returned in the mid-1960s. It shows a teary-eyed woman on a turbulent sea. She is emotionally distressed, seemingly from a romance. Using the conventions of comic book art, a thought bubble reads: "I Don't Care! I'd Rather Sink — Than Call Brad For Help!" This narrative element highlights the clichéd melodrama, while its graphics — including Ben-Day dots that echo the effect of the printing process — reiterate Lichtenstein's theme of painterly work that imitates mechanized reproduction. The work is derived from a 1962 DC Comics panel; both the graphical and narrative elements of the work are cropped from the source image. It also borrows from Hokusai's The Great Wave off Kanagawa and from elements of modernist artists Jean Arp and Joan Miró. It is one of several Lichtenstein works that mention a character named Brad who is absent from the picture.
Girl in Mirror (1964)
Girl in Mirror (sometimes Girl in the Mirror) is a 1964 porcelain-enamel-on-steel pop art painting by Roy Lichtenstein that is considered to exist in between eight and ten editions. One edition was part of a $14 million 2012 lawsuit regarding a 2009 sale, while another sold in 2010 for $4.9 million. Although it uses Ben-Day dots like many other Lichtenstein works, it was inspired by the New York City Subway rather than directly from a panel of a romance comics work.
Girl in Mirror uses Ben-Day dots like many of his other works, but it was inspired by the hard reflective finish of signs in the New York City Subway system and, in turn, they inspired his subsequent ceramic head works. Enamel facilitated a more mechanical appearance than even his paintings while remaining in two dimensions. After 1963, Lichtenstein's comics-based women "... look hard, crisp, brittle, and uniformly modish in appearance, as if they all came out of the same pot of makeup." This particular example is one of several that is cropped so closely that the hair flows beyond the edges of the canvas.
I Can See the Whole Room...and There's Nobody in It! (1961)
I Can See the Whole Room...and There's Nobody in It! (sometimes I Can See the Whole Room and There's Nobody in It! or simply I Can See the Whole Room!) is a 1961 painting by Roy Lichtenstein. It is a painting of a man looking through a peephole. It formerly held the record for highest auction price for a Lichtenstein painting.
The work is based on a William Overgard-drawn comics panel from a Steve Roper cartoon. Lichtenstein's derivation augments the presentation of the narrative and expands the use of color in the image. As with the original the image employs the theme of vision, and focuses specifically on mechanized vision as well as monocularity.
Oh, Jeff...I Love You, Too...But... (1964)
Oh, Jeff...I Love You, Too...But... (sometimes Oh, Jeff) is a 1964 oil and magna on canvas painting by Roy Lichtenstein. Like many of Lichtenstein's works, its title comes from the speech balloon in the painting.
Although many sources, such as the Encyclopedia of Art, describe Whaam! and Drowning Girl as Lichtenstein's most famous works, artist Vian Shamounki Borchert believes it is this piece, calling it his Mona Lisa. Borchert notes that this painting captures "the magic" of its "anguished and yes [sic] beautiful blue-eyed, blond hair, full lips" female subject while presenting "sad eyes that seem to give in to what seems to be a doomed love affair".
Torpedo...Los! (1963)
Torpedo...Los! (sometimes Torpedo...LOS!) is a 1963 pop art oil on canvas painting by Roy Lichtenstein. When it was last sold in 1989, The New York Times described the work as "a comic-strip image of sea warfare". It formerly held the record for the highest auction price for a Lichtenstein work. Its 1989 sale helped finance the construction of the current home of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago in 1991.
Like many of Lichtenstein's works its title comes from the speech balloon in the painting. The work was included in Lichtenstein's second solo exhibition. The source of the image is a comic book from DC Comics. Lichtenstein has made significant alterations to the original image to change the focus and perspective in addition to significant alteration of the narrative element of the work. The work plays on the background-foreground relationship and the theme of vision that appears in many of Lichtenstein's works.
Takka Takka (Lichtenstein) (1962)
Takka Takka is a 1962 pop art painting by Roy Lichtenstein in his comic book style of using Ben-Day dots and a story panel. This work is held in the collection of the Museum Ludwig. The title comes from the onomatopoeic graphics that depict the sound that comes from a machine gun.
Lichtenstein was a trained United States Army pilot, draftsman and artist as well as a World War II (WWII) veteran who never saw active combat. The work depicts a machine gun firing as it is situated above the camouflage of palm fronds during the Battle of Guadalcanal. The image shows shell casings and a grenade in mid flight. An explosion is stylized with the titular phrase. The source of Takka Takka is the comic book Battlefield Action #40 (February 1962, Charlton Comics Group).