Roy Lichtenstein, who died in 1997, is one of the most successful American artists of all times. His works are present in important public and private collections around the world, including the Tate Gallery in London and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
The prices of his early works increased dramatically over the last years.
But what exactly makes an early work by Roy Lichtenstein so valuable?
Roy Lichtenstein’s works are among the most valuable in the world. Due to their popularity, his early works have been reproduced and resold several times.
Although there is a significant chance of ending up with a fake, there are ways to avoid it. The first step is to understand how the artist’s early works differ from those that came later.
The first important difference is in the size of the work. Roy Lichtenstein’s early works were relatively big. In fact, they were often bigger than the original Pop Art paintings that he copied. The average size of his early pieces was about 10 inches by 15 inches, while many of his later works were only 5 inches by 7 inches.
Lichtenstein’s early works also weren’t limited to one or two colors, as some of his later works were. His earlier pieces often had more than two layers of paint. They also used a variety of different techniques such as silk-screening, lithography and etching on top of each other to create unique and interesting color schemes.
The most obvious difference between early and late Lichtenstein works is the subject matter itself and how it was presented on canvas. Early Lichtensteins often featured a wide variety of different people interacting with each other
In the world of fine art, the name Roy Lichtenstein is synonymous with Pop Art. The artist has become a household name and his works are highly sought-after at auctions and galleries. The artist rose to fame in the 1960s when he began to use motifs from advertisements in his own work. Lichtenstein would use common objects such as comic strips, playing cards or musical notes, employing bold lines and strong primary colours to create a sense of urgency and movement in his paintings.
Lichtenstein’s most famous works include “Blam” (1962), “Drowning Girl” (1963), “Look Mickey” (1963) and “Whaam!” (1963). In these early paintings, he used a mechanical process, which was then laborious and time-consuming, but which allowed him to achieve a unique style. He would photograph comic strips or illustrations from popular magazines, enlarge them on large canvases, then draw over the top in pencil. Finally he would paint over this layer with broad strokes of bright primary colour.
Lichtenstein’s early works are extremely rare and highly sought-after by collectors today. One collector recently went on record saying that his taste leans towards early works because they provide a sense of energy and
If you love Roy Lichtenstein, and I do, then you are going to want to see this.
Lichtenstein has been a favorite of mine since I was in high school. My love for his work grew with me, and now I am a 40-something year old art aficionado and collector of his work.
I have always loved how he could take an illustration from a comic book (which I also learned at an early age to appreciate) and make it into something rich and beautiful. He had the ability to take something that often was misunderstood as just “junk” and turn it into something that went beyond comic book art.
It seems fitting that my love for his work has grown over my lifetime, as it has been the same way with most of the artists and musicians that I have come to appreciate.
In my younger days the appreciation for music seemed much greater than art. I could appreciate a song, but if someone asked me about the lyrics or if I knew who drew the album cover, it would have been highly unlikely that I would be able to comment intelligently on either one. Certainly not like today when I can discuss both music and art with some degree of knowledge and expertise.*
If you are an avid collector
Roy Lichtenstein, the artist most closely associated with the Pop Art movement, was born on October 27, 1923 in New York City. The son of Jewish immigrants from Germany, his early life was one of hardship. In 1930, his father died in a construction accident and the family moved to the Lower East Side of Manhattan where they lived in a cold-water flat and his mother struggled to raise two sons on her own.
Eager for a better life for his family, Lichtenstein’s father encouraged him to pursue a career in commercial art. After graduating from high school, Roy enrolled at the Art Students League and worked at various odd jobs as an illustrator to help support his family. He attended classes during the day and worked nights as an assistant at a textile design studio. At 18 years old he received an honorable discharge from military service which enabled him to continue studying at night at the Brooklyn Museum School. During the day he worked for the Montgomery Ward Company designing patterns for their dress department under the direction of renowned artist Norman Rockwell.
Lichtenstein expanded his studies by attending summer classes at Cooper Union and The New School before enrolling at Ohio State University where he studied fine arts while also taking courses in commercial art and advertising illustration. He graduated with
“Roy Lichtenstein was an American pop artist. The terms “pop art” and “pop artist” is used in connection with the art movement as a reference to visual art, and especially as a reflection of the way that it reaches popular culture. Pop art is often experimental, ironic and based on commonplace, everyday subjects.”
Tone:funny