Roy Lichtenstein

On October 27^th 1923, at Flower Hospital in New York City, one of the leading figures of the pop art movement was born. The famous artist, Roy Fox Lichtenstein was born to German and Jewish parents, Milton Lichtenstein and Beatrice Werner. His father Milton who was born in Brooklyn, was a World War I veteran as well as a real-estate broker. Lichtenstein’s mother on the other hand, was born in New Orleans and subsequently moved to Connecticut. She was a homemaker as well as a pianist. Lichtenstein had a younger sister named Renee who was younger than him by five years. Together, the family resided in the Upper West Side of Manhattan where Lichtenstein spent the majority of his childhood in.

Because Lichtenstein’s mother was a highly trained pianist, her artistic interests manifested in her children as well. She would often bring Lichtenstein and his sister Renee to museums, concerts and other centers of art and culture. Lichtenstein developed artistic and musical ability through these many visits. He spent many hours at the Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Modern Art. Many of these trips would influence him to paint, sculpt and play musical instruments as a teenager. He played the piano and clarinet and immersed himself with jazz music, and even started a jazz band in his high school.

In 1940, Lichtenstein went on to study painting and drawing the summer after graduating from high school. He attended the Art Students League of New York which was then taught and led by Reginald Marsh. The September of that same year, Lichtenstein went on to attend Ohio State University to study botany, literature, botany, design and drawing. In Ohio, Lichtenstein would later meet one of the most influential figures that shaped Lichtenstein’s art form, Hoyt L. Sherman. Sherman showed him a more perception based approach to art and changed the way Lichtenstein saw art. Lichtenstein briefly joined the army after being drafted in 1943 and took the required engineering courses at De Paul University for his tour duty. In 1945, he was sent to Europe where he saw action in France, Belgium and Germany. After serving for the army, he went back to OSU to finish his Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts. He was later invited to join the faculty at OSU as an art instructor. Several pieces of Lichtenstein’s artwork had been exhibited in an art gallery in Cleveland and that was where he first met his wife Isabel Wilson Sarisky. In June 1949, they married until their divorce in 1965. He then remarried in 1968 to Dorothy Herzka.

Lichtenstein’s early work covered a wide range of styles and subject matter. He would experiment with a variety of different materials such as pastels, ceramic and even metals like silver and bronze. Then, as he matured in his art work during the 1940’s and 1950’s he developed a style of artwork that was inspired by Abstract Expressionism and biomorphic Surrealism. In a Surrealist style, Lichtenstein would portray street workers, racecar drivers, musicians and other characters into his paintings. He went on to incorporate birds, insects, and medieval motifs into his paintings. He also created a rotating easel to allow him to paint from any angle he liked.

Lichtenstein then accepted a position at SUNY Oswego as an assistant professor in 1957. There, he began to incorporate cartoon figures like Donald Duck and Mickey mouse into his art work with an expressionistic style in the background. Although no paintings in Lichtenstein’s proto-cartoon period survived, he did keep several pencil and pastel studies which documented his transition. Then in 1961, he painted his famous Look Mickey piece, the first of his artwork that incorporated Ben-Day spots. This marked the entry of Lichtenstein into the Pop art movement which first started in Britain during the middle of the 1950’s and then in the United States during the late 1950’s. To understand Lichtenstein’s motives and inspiration behind his new Pop art form, what was going on during this time must also be understood. The aftermath of World War II created an American society that not only had a boost in their economy, but also increased consumerism and spending. Lichtenstein wanted to shed some light on the drastic change in American economics and attitudes in regards to spending. Pop art was also a response to Abstract Expressionism during the 1940’s.

Lichtenstein’s new art styled parodied that of old comic strips. He would utilize bold colors and thick lines as well as Ben-Day dots to fill in certain colors with his choice of paint was oil and Magna paint. Although Magna paint is made from acrylic resin, it has quite a few differences that appealed to Lichtenstein. For one, it gives a glossier finish compared to acrylic. He believed that it displayed colors better compared to water-based acrylic paints. It was also easier to remove with turpentine.

Like the many leading Pop artists of his time, Lichtenstein was one of the first Americans to achieve the popularity he had. Lichtenstein’s work was shown across the nation at major national exhibitions. Lichtenstein was given a solo exhibition in 1962 by Leo Castelli which really launched Lichtenstein’s career in not only his reputation but money as well. Then, during the same year, Sidney Janis Gallery organized the International Exhibition of the New Realists art show to showcase the world’s most famous and influential Pop artists. Lichtenstein’s painting, Blam was part of this exhibition. Some notable places where Lichtenstein’s work have been featured are the New Painting of Common Object show at the Pasadena Art Museum, The Guggenheim Museum’s Six Painters and the Object Exhibit, and the São Paulo 9 Exhibition- Environment U.S.A. Perhaps the two most famous paintings that put Lichtenstein in the spotlight was Drowning Girl and Wham!, both of which were created in 1963. Both pieces utilized Ben-Day dots and images adapted from DC comics.

Although Lichtenstein was accused of just copying images of cartoons, that was his style and he modified these images to become a fit his own style. He said that “I’m never drawing the object itself; I’m only drawing a depiction of the object—a kind of crystallized symbol of it”. In 1962, he started producing prints using a lithograph technique. All his paintings that year were based on All-American Men of War comics. Eventually, Lichtenstein stopped using comic books as a source for his work and shifted his focus on sculpture paintings that depicted the art of early twentieth century artists.

Roy Lichtenstein died at the New York University Medical Center the age of seventy-three on September 29^th, 1997. He died from complications of pneumonia. Today, Lichtenstein and his pieces are associated Pop art. Although many artists used popular imagery in their pieces, Lichtenstein differentiates himself with the use of cartoon imagery. Through his art, Lichtenstein was able to interpret Pop art through traditional art history.

____________________________________________

Bibliography

“BIOGRAPHY – Roy Lichtenstein Foundation.” Roy Lichtenstein Foundation RSS. Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2016.

“Roy Lichtenstein Biography.” Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2016 http://www.biography.com/people/roy-lichtenstein-9381678#personal-life-and-death