Lichtenstein

American painterRoy Lichtenstein(1923—1997) pioneered a new epoch in American art, bursting onto a scene dominated by Abstract Expressionism in late 1950s New York and defining anew art vocabulary for a new era.

With his groundbreaking use of industrial production techniques and trivial, quotidian imagery such ascartoons, comic strips, and advertising, Lichtenstein joined contemporaries such as Andy Warhol and James Rosenquist toreflect and satirize American mass media and consumer culture. Works such asLook, Mickey!(1961),Drowning Girl(1963), andWhaam!(1963), deployed mass production techniques, particularlyBen-Day dots printing, to create a blow-up effect andpixelated “dot” style, with which Lichtenstein has become synonymous.

This book provides an essential overview of Lichtenstein’s career, tracing his earliest Pop statements through to later “brushstroke” retorts to Abstract Expressionism and reinterpretations of modern masterpieces. We look at hisleading position in mid-century modernism, and the ways in which his works both critique and chronicle 20th-century America.