Roy Lichtenstein

Biography

Roy Lichtenstein was in New York City on October 27th, 1923. Between 1940 and 1943 he studied in New York at the Art Students League and was then drafted to the US Army where he served in Europe in the Second World War.
On return from his national duty, Lichtenstein studied at the Ohio State University and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1946 followed by a Masters degree in 1949. Like other artists of the time, he worked in the commercial graphic world and then in 1957 after some previous teaching experience at Ohio State he started teaching at Oswego State College in New York and then moved on to teach at Rutgers University in New Jersey in 1960. During this period Lichtenstein’s work was based around themes of the American West, Cowboys and Native Americans, however by 1961 he was creating the images for which he became known as one of the great artists of the Pop Art movement.
Lichtenstein gave up teaching to focus on his painting full time, and today he is best known for his paintings based on comic strips. It is said that his work was the result of a challenge from his son that he wouldn’t be able to paint the images from a Mickey Mouse comic book. The result was six paintings of comic strip frames with only minor changes from the original material, using techniques of Benday dots, lettering and speech balloons which were to become his signature. One of Lichtenstein’s peculiarities was that he did not want any brushstrokes to be seen.
During the 1980’s and 1990’s Lichtenstein was mixing and matching various different styles, often using optical tricks to draw the viewers in and to create debate. He also returned to the use of Benday dots with a new and more refined style on his earlier work. He died at the age of 73 in 1997.

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