Lichtenstein’s career spanned the post-war period, a time of great social and cultural change. Lichtenstein himself matured professionally and personally during this time, as he moved from his native New York to become an established artist in California.
The blog will help document the early years of Lichtenstein’s artistic career, as well as provide information on where his early works might be found today, or even how to create your own.
Roy Lichtenstein’s early career is somewhat shrouded in mystery. We know that he was an apprentice at a sign company in New York, and that he served as a draftsman at the studio of George Nelson – but what transpired between 1937-1942 remains a bit of a mystery.
The discovery of this blog is exciting to me because it gives us an inside view into Roy’s early career (particularly in NYC). The author is a young man named Justin Lieberman, who is doing his own research on the artist. In addition to providing insight into Roy’s life during this time period, Justin also includes information on other artists who worked with Roy around this time (Ruth and Leopold Susskind) and provides some great tidbits about this time period.
I encourage everyone to take a look at the blog here: http://roylichtensteinaertrashcan.blogspot.com/ .
The pieces are like the ones that would come to dominate Lichtenstein’s later works: comic-book images of soldiers and pin-ups, and a few of his signature advertisements. They’re rendered in the same thick brushstrokes, jagged lines, and bright colors that would become his hallmark. But in 1962, when he was 26 years old, these were not yet the instantly recognizable works for which he’s now known.
The group of paintings and drawings on view at the gallery—many of them by now museum-quality—was assembled by Jack Cowart, a former curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art who was one of Lichtenstein’s early champions. (Cowart saw his first Lichtenstein painting when it was exhibited at a college art show.) The exhibition has been organized by Cowart in collaboration with the artist’s foundation and will travel to other museums around the country through next year.
Lichtenstein’s comic-book-based work evolved out of different sources than other contemporary pop artists’. Rather than appropriating advertising imagery, Lichtenstein mined comic books from his youth, which he remembered fondly despite their terrible artwork. He described them as “the only handbooks available for artists—handbooks for how not to draw.”
In the early 1960s Roy Lichtenstein first came to prominence as a Pop artist with his masterful comic-book inspired paintings. The comic book motif was a major influence on Lichtenstein’s work, and he often reproduced comic panels using bright, primary colors, such as in Whaam! (1963), which depicts an atomic explosion with the word “WHAM” in bold capital letters.
Taken from: http://www.artrenewal.org/exhibitions/show/6067
Roy Lichtenstein was born on October 27th, 1923 in New York City. He often daydreamed in class and was regarded by his teachers as a slow learner. In 1940 he graduated from high school and enrolled at Ohio State University to study architecture where he spent time studying art and writing poetry. He then transferred to the University of Cincinnati and studied Fine Arts, but left after one year to join the army in 1943. He served in France and Germany until 1946, at which time he returned to Ohio State University to complete his degree.[1] While completing his education Roy worked part time as a draftsman at various architectural firms.[2]
In 1949 Lichtenstein graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, after which he held
In the early 1960s, Roy Lichtenstein became one of the first and most prominent American Pop artists. He is known primarily for his paintings and prints that reference popular culture. In a recent blogpost, the curator of modern art at London’s Tate Modern museum, where a major retrospective of Lichtenstein’s work is now on view, writes that the artist “recognized that art can take inspiration from anything and still be art.”
The curator says that Lichtenstein believed “that it was sometimes impossible not to make art about a subject.” She adds that he “also knew that a good artist made something more interesting than the original.”
Roy Lichtenstein (1923 -1997) was an American painter and printmaker. During the 1960s, along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and James Rosenquist among others, he became a leading figure in the new art movement. His work defined the premise of pop art through parody.
He used popular images and objects from American culture such as advertisements, comic strips, and iconic images from movies to make large scale paintings that were displayed individually or in series.
From the early 1960s on, he created his works by using cartoon images and techniques which were inspired by the printing process for comics…
“Oh, the places you’ll go.” Oh, the places you *haven’t* gone.
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.”
So begins Dr. Seuss’ timeless classic, “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” It is a book of limitless possibilities and endless adventures. In it, you’ll meet creatures as big as Baxters and as small as thimbles; friends who will be there to help you and tricks that will try to defeat you; lands near and far that are just waiting to be explored.
The good news is that there’s more than one of these incredible books! In fact, there are a whole lot of them: more than 50 Dr. Seuss classics in all. That means if you love one (“Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?”), you’re sure to love them all (like “Did I Ever Tell You About the Time I Raised My Voice to the Wind?”). So open up a new world (or worlds) today! Begin with this classic – “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”
