Roy Lichenstein

1923 - 1997
US

Roy Lichtenstein, one of the leading figures of the Pop Art movement, was born in New York. He received his training in art at the Ohio State University. After military service in Europe, he returned to Cleveland and began to paint subjects drawn from American Popular culture, particularly cowboys and Indians. These works were shown regularly in New York from 1951 to 1957. Then there followed a period of lyrical abstraction.

In 1960, he introduced his cartoonlike compositions drawn from comic books and executed on a huge scale. He exploited the banal content with wry humor, focusing on the frequently absurd heroics of the genre. In the mid-1960's he turned to the history of art for inspiration, and investigated the various styles of twentieth-century masters.