Roy Lichtenstein Bio/Thesis

Roy Lichtenstein was a great contemporary artist of his time. He grew up in New York during the 1920’s and his parents were a realtor and a housewife. He was known as the most sophisticated of the pop artist with his unique paintings. During his time in high school, there was no curriculum for art at his school, but he still began to paint as a hobby during his junior year of high school. Lichtenstein received much motivation from a very famous artist known as Picasso. Lichtenstein was admired by Picasso’s Blue and Rose period Paintings, and was a big fan of the jazz musicians. (Lucie-Smith, par. 2)

Lichtenstein was a teacher throughout his career, while teacher at Rutgers University during the 1960’s. Being an artist at first for Roy wasn’t that easy, his first pop art painting was a dollar bill in 1956, and he got barely any attention for it. The painting was classified as “Abstract Expressionist”, and during the 1957-1960 period, Lichtenstein’s work was broadly spoken. (Lucie-Smith, par. 3) Lichtenstein began to become well known as an artist, when people began comparing him with Andy Warhol, who was considered the best of the pop art movement until Lichtenstein came about.

Lichtenstein one day took his paintings “unannounced to the Leo Castillo Gallery, and was almost immediately accepted for his exhibition there, in preference to Andy Warhol, who had started doing similar work.” (Lucie-Smith, par. 5) Lichtenstein began his career in 1963, after doing his first show with Castelli which launched him on a huge career and made him successful. After becoming known for his art, Lichtenstein left Rutgers, and moved back to New York where he quit teaching altogether to focus on his art. (Lucie-Smith, par. 5)

During an interview with Gene R. Swenson, Lichtenstein was asked “What is Pop Art?” Lichtenstein then answered, “I don’t know- the use of commercial art as a subject matter in painting, I suppose. It was hard to get a painting that was despicable enough so that no one would hang it… The one thing everyone hated was commercial art; apparently they didn’t hate that enough either.” (Janson, Anthony F. Pg.945) Basically, even though many people didn’t like commercial art, Lichtenstein’s was so unique; it was hard for the people to stay away. He was an artist too unique for some, and one of the best of his time in the pop art field.

Today, Lichtenstein has a trio of paintings in the art gallery at the Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art. The paintings include Meat, Strong Hand, and Desk Calendar, which were all painted during the year of 1962. Lichtenstein lived a beautiful career, but sadly died not to long ago. His life ended of pneumonia on September 29, 1997; he was 73, but left behind his legacy of the best pop artist of his time. (Lenin Imports, Paragraphs, 1, 16)

Roy Lichtenstein was an artist that was of the pop art movement. He is very famous for many of his paintings, but Drowning Girl and Blam! are two of his paintings in which Lichtenstein expresses his art work greatly. Blam! is a painting in which Lichtenstein used oil on canvas to develop. The oil on canvas gives the painting a unique style and the colors explode in your face. Drowning Girl is another painting painted the same way, but I feel Lichtenstein has something extra behind his paintings. In these two paintings, along with many others by Lichtenstein, it seems people or something is in danger. I believe Lichtenstein uses his paintings to express the dangers of life and to bring out some of the trouble he had while growing up during his life as a pop art painter.