Artist Research Post

- ROY LICHTENSTEIN -

Roy Lichtenstein, born October 27, 1923 in Manhattan, was a pop-artist who, starting in the 60's, transformed people's overall perception of art. Today, Lichtenstein is best known for his blown-up comic book portraits of girls & other cartoon-ish images. Lichtenstein used Ben-Day dots in his art in order to give his pieces a comic book-like feeling. Lichtenstein's new style of pop art was anti-everything, including the previous style he used and the most popular style of the time, Abstract Expressionism. Lichtenstein wanted to see "the difference between commercial drawing and fine art drawing". Lichtenstein differed from the other "king" of pop art, Andy Warhol, in that he had a different style of painting and lacked the celebrity persona that Warhol had. Lichtenstein was against the "pop machine" and opposed to much of what Warhol was doing at the time. Lichtenstein took the concept of commercial art and flipped it upside down. 

I really like Lichtenstein because he proved that he wasn't afraid to mess with what the public felt comfortable with. He turned the art world upside down when he first arrived on the scene and many were wondering if the pieces he was creating were even qualified as works of art. He wasn't afraid to do something that nobody else was doing, and I really respect him for that.

I love this painting a lot because it differs greatly from some of his other earlier paintings which strictly feature the three primary colors and the color black. Girl In Window (above) uses brighter hues of all three primaries plus a dark green for the window. I also love all of the energy that was put into in the painting.

 

I saw this piece, Perforated Seascape #1, when I visited Lichtenstein: A Retrospective in D.C. this past December. I loved how different this one was from all of the other landscape paintings he did. It consisted of two panels (about 8 inches apart) which were either covered in blue dots or red dots. When you got closer or farther away, these giant spots (visible above) would start to form and change shape/disappear.

 

I've always really enjoyed his Brushstroke paintings but the one above has to be my favorite. I love that the brushstrokes are painted to look almost like the hair of the girls he also paints.