Roy Fox Lichtenstein - SKETCHLINE

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October 27, 1923, Manhattan, New York, the USA - September 29, 1997, New York, the USA

Roy Fox Lichtenstein

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One of the first and most prominent representatives of Pop Art, which gained wide popularity in the USA in the 1950s and 60s of the 20th century. Roy Lichtenstein became famous for his comic book paintings, each of which reflects various aspects of the life of ordinary Americans. Using simple and understandable images, the artist challenged avant-garde painting, intelligible only to a few, and turned everyday things into real works of art.

Vivid and catchy works of the artist were constantly criticized by art historians and colleagues who refused to perceive the paintings of Lichtenstein as works of art, considering them vulgar and meaningless. Life magazine even called him “America’s worst artist”; despite that, Roy Lichtenstein became incredibly popular and gained a considerable number of followers.

The artist is also known as the creator of a series of paintings that are a repetition of the works of such famous artists as Van Gogh, Picasso and Monet, interpreted by the author in his simplified style. The debate about whether the work of Roy Lichtenstein is a genuine talent or simply a successful “advertising move” continues to this day. But the fact that the artist’s paintings are in demand and sold at auctions for a lot of money speaks of the importance and necessity of his work.

Key ideas:

– The artist used well-known images or objects familiar to every simple person of his time. The central objects of his compositions were comic book characters, attractive young girls from brochures and cartoon characters. Sometimes Roy Lichtenstein depicted inanimate objects. The central theme of the composition could well be a stove, a kettle or a meat grinder.

– The style of pop art, in which Lichtenstein worked, contrasted with the abstract expressionism that was widespread in the USA in the mid-20th century. The mysteriousness and pointlessness of his abstract works are not always perceived easily by the viewer, while decorative and expressive images taken from life evoke a direct and emotional response.

– Before starting work, Lichtenstein looked through a large number of magazines and other printed materials and chose the subjects he liked. Despite all the accusations of plagiarism, the artist never just copied the selected fragment or drawing. He always rethought the material, modified it (sometimes significantly) and created a finished composition that the public was always interested in.

– A characteristic feature of the paintings by Roy Lichtenstein is the presence of phrases and sounds in them. Like the comic book authors do, the artist placed letters and even whole sentences in the so-called “callouts”, in the form of clouds at the top of the picture. These elements explain the meaning of the depicted situation or enhance the effect of the painting. A striking example is the inscription “Whaam!” in his work of the same name, emphasizing the roar of the explosion.

– In his comic-book paintings, as well as in peculiar “reproductions” of paintings by famous artists, Lichtenstein used the simplification method. He used only simple colours: red, blue and yellow, and emphasized the shape of the object with a thick continuous contour. A branded feature of the artist’s manner is the use of raster dots, which are normally used in print, to create a certain volume and decorativeness in works.

– Some critics consider the work of Lichtenstein a parody of the modern consumer society, which is alien to thoughts about high. The artist himself refuted this opinion, arguing that where many see satire, he just depicted the things he liked.

Roy Fox Lichtenstein

On Artist

flow

Expressionism

Cubism

Abstract expressionism

Surrealism

friends

Claes Oldenburg

Allan Kaprow

artists

Fernand Leger

Pablo Picasso

Henri Matisse

Piet Mondrian

Jasper Jones

Robert Rauschenberg

By Artist

flow

Pop art

friends

Claes Oldenburg

Allan Kaprow

artists

Keith Haring

Damien Hirst

Jeff Koons

Andy Warhol

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The nude works created in the 1990s were combined by the author in the Late Nudes series. In these paintings, Lichtenstein returned to the figures from the comic and works in a similar but somewhat modified technique.

1994

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A few decades after the creation of his outrageous “comic” paintings, Roy Lichtenstein was able to shock the public again by creating a series of works repeating the paintings of the great artists of modernism.

1992

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Creating his works, Lichtenstein wanted them to look as if they were printed. To do this, he used the methods of raster printing, in which large areas are filled not with a solid colour but with the help of small dots.

1964

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Having rather limited artistic means at his disposal, Roy Lichtenstein could convey the emotions and atmosphere of the moment to the viewer. The faces of a man and a woman, shown in close-up, resemble a photograph painted in bright colours or a poster.

1964

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This scene from the comic is depicted by the author in his manner using bold black contours and only three colours: yellow, blue and red. Lichtenstein transmitted the speed with which the car was traveling using dashed lines parallel to the plane of the canvas.

1963

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One of Lichtenstein's most famous paintings is a diptych depicting aerial combat. During the Second World War, the artist served in Europe, and what he saw during the war formed the basis of the plot of the picture.

1963

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To create the composition, the artist used a scene from a comic strip, as he did in his other works. Lichtenstein did not completely redraw the plot from the magazine but cut the image in half.

1963

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Sometimes instead of beauties and couples in love from comics, inanimate objects appear as the central character in the paintings by Roy Lichtenstein. Most often, these are various “smart” machines - housekeepers, which are not only convenient but also prestigious house items.

1962

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The work was created under the influence of the famous "Black Square" by Malevich. The canvas created in a comic book technique, which Lichtenstein had already been actively using that time, depicts a man looking into a dark room through a peephole.

1961

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The first work of Roy Lichtenstein from a series of paintings based on comics. The idea to create a work in this style came to the artist spontaneously when his little son asked him to paint a picture from his favorite Mickey Mouse comic strip.

1961