Famous works of Roy Lichtenstein

In early 1961, Roy Lichtenstein was challenged by his young son to “paint as well” as the artists in the Mickey Mouse comics he was reading. Thus, an icon of the American pop scene found the format that would make him famous.

Two of his best-known works are the comic-inspired pieces, Whaam! and Drowning Girl, both done in 1963. In these paintings, Lichtenstein uses a method of outlining figures with thick, black strokes and fills in areas of primary color with Benday dots to produce different tones and hues, both practices reminiscent of printing methods. of comics. Books produced in the 1960s and 1970s.

Wow! was itself an adaptation of an actual illustration from a 1962 war comic published by DC. The painting is a diptych composed of an Air Force plane firing a rocket at an enemy that explodes in a brilliant display of red and yellow. In comic book style lettering, a caption on the first panel reads: “I pressed the fire control…and ahead of me rockets flashed across the sky…” The illustration is highlighted with large capital letters that spell out “Whaam!” as the rocket hits its target.

In Torpedo…Los!, the comic-themed panel shows a close-up of a submarine captain looking through a periscope. The scene is punctuated with bold bands of primary yellow and blue. The painting attracted a bid of more than $5 million when it sold at auction in 1989.

The choice of Torpedo and Whaam! seems heavily influenced by Lichtenstein’s own military service which interrupted his art studies at Ohio State University.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Lichtenstein began to broaden his focus, including continuing a series of “Artists’ Studies.” Look Mickey depicts a sparsely furnished studio with Disney character Donald Duck in a painting on the studio wall. Much of the space is rendered in black and white, set against the blue, yellow, and pops of red in the wall art. Donald Duck is fishing and his speech balloon says, “Look Mickey, I’ve hooked a big one!” A separate word balloon, not connected to any speaker, says, “See that bald guy over there? That’s “Curly” Grogan. He and his mob run half the mobs in this town! “

Other works in the “Studios” series incorporate the work of other artists as background material for Lichtenstein’s paintings. Lichtenstein also dabbled in surrealism, even building metal and plastic sculptures like Lamp in St. Mary’s, Georgia and The Head in Barcelona.