Roy Lichtenstein
For Roy Lichtenstein, art is all around us - from advertisements, to landscapes, to newspaper cartoons. Each would figure in his seminal work of prints, paintings, and sculpture. Born in 1923 in New York, Lichtenstein went to Ohio University for undergraduate and graduate degrees in the arts. He then began his teaching career there, before moving on to Oswego State College in New York, and then Rutgers University in New Jersey. In 1963, he devoted himself to his art work full-time. One of his most significant works, Whaam, was created that same year. (The work is now in London’s Tate collection.) Lichtenstein took the look and feel of colorful newspaper comics, and using stencils to create large dots, made it look like a real newspaper cartoon had been blown-up to an enormous size. With this work, Lichtenstein placed himself at the forefront of Pop Art. In 1966, his work was shown in the Venice Biennale. By 1969, Lichtenstein’s output garnered a large retrospective at the Guggenheim in New York. These works became his signature creations, even though he continued to expand his artistic horizons for the rest of his life. He made pop versions of paintings from Matisse, Monet, and Picasso, and created a series of paintings, Landscapes in the Chinese Style, that capture the fluidity and subtleness of Chinese nature painting. The National Gallery in Washington, D.C. holds the largest collection of Lichtenstein’s works. His last completed work was the DreamWorks Records logo. Lichtenstein died in 1997.
