Roy Lichtenstein artworks and editions

Roy Lichtenstein was an American painter and graphic artist who, alongside Andy Warhol, is one of the pioneers of Pop Art.

Lichtenstein was born in New York City in 1923 and studied there at the Art Students League and then at the Ohio State University in Columbus. After he had to interrupt his studies for military service, he was able to continue from 1946. In the 1950s he worked as a drawing teacher at Ohio State University and then taught at New State University in Oswego and at Douglass College, Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Around 1960, the American artist found his characteristic painting style. Lichtenstein is based on the style of comic strips and adopts the grid points of the print templates in his painting. He also used classified ads or illustrations from newspapers and magazines as templates for his pictures and works. Later, the painter translated other works of art, such as those by Cézanne, Mondrian or Pablo Picasso, into his works through his own concise painting style. From the 1970s onwards, the artist also created sculptural works and monumental murals.

Like several other artists of the time, Roy Lichtenstein moved away from abstract expressionism and turned to popular culture and the aesthetics of advertising, dealing with the fast-moving modern consumer world in a socially critical and at the same time ironic manner. The graphic depiction of structure using dots, taken from newspaper printing, became iconic for the artist's work. Lichtenstein died in New York in 1997 at the age of 73. His comic-style portraits, which are often combined with speech bubbles, exclamations or onomatopoeic words, were as popular then as they are today. His artworks and editions are represented in the most renowned art collections and museums in the world.