Roy Lichtenstein was born in New York City on October 27, 1923, the son of a realtor and housewife. He began taking painting classes at age 14 at Parson's School of Design and later he attended the Art Students League. After serving in World War II, he graduated with a Master of Arts degree from the School of Fine Arts at Ohio State University. Lichtenstein began his career in the commercial graph
...see more »ic business, after which he taught at several universities, including Ohio State, New York State College of Education at Oswego and Douglas State, a division of Rutgers University in New Jersey.
In 1951 Lichtenstein had his first one-man show in Cleveland. Throughout the 1950s, his style was basically abstract expressionism, incorporating themes like paper money, cowboys and Indians. Prompted by a challenge from his son that he couldn't paint as well as a comic strip artist, in the early 60s Lichtenstein began painting his comic or cartoon characters. This became his signature style with the use of primary colors: bright red, blue and yellow outlined in flat black. His images were created with a ben-day dot process, whereby the density or tone of color is modulated in printing or overlaid over the pattern or dots. He liked his paintings to look like they had been programmed.
After showing his comic strip paintings at an exhibition in 1962, his career was launched and he left teaching in 1964 to devote all his time to painting. Lichtenstein is considered one of the best artists of the Pop Art movement, even incorporating in his cartoon paintings hand lettering and speech balloons representing dialogue. In the 1990s, he did large-scale abstract interiors, such as Times Square mural. He also worked in ceramics, developing tableware, enameled steel and graphics for mass production.
In 1969, Lichtenstein was given a retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum, an exhibit that also toured throughout the country. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1970. Lichtenstein appeared in many documentary films and did posters throughout his career, including some for Bill Clinton's Presidential campaign. He died unexpectedly on September 29, 1997 from viral pneumonia. His work can be found in murals in the cities of Dusseldorf, Germany, Tel Aviv, Israel and New York City. Lichtenstein's paintings are in museums and galleries, private and corporate collections and retailers around the world.
Prices for his works continue to rise, with a 2006 sale of 'Sinking Sun I' (1964) for $14 million. A record high sale price for his work was the November, 2005 sale of 'In the Car' (1963) for $14.5 million at Christie's New York. 'Still life with Lamp I' (1976), bought for $300,000 at Christie's NY in 1996, sold again in 2006 at Sotheby's for $2.7 million.
Partial listing of major artwork:
1961 Girl with Ball (Museum of Modern Art, New York)
1963 Whaam (Tate, London)
1963 Drowning Girl (Museum of Modern Art, New York)
1963 In the Car (Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh)
1964 Sussex
1965 Big Painting VI
1966 Modern Painting with Bolt (Museum of Modern Art, New York City)
1967 Modern Sculpture with Glass Wave (Museum of Modern Art, New York)
1976 Entablature (Museum of Modern Art, New York City)
1977 Girl with a Tear« see less
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