Roy Lichtenstein
American (1923-1997)
Whaam!, 1963.
Magna and oil on canvas. 172.7 x 406.4 cm (68 x 160 in).
© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein.
Tate: Purchased 1966. Photo ©Tate, 2011.
Roy Lichtenstein
American (1923-1997)
Ohhh…Alright, 1964.
Oil and Magna on canvas. 91.4 x 96.5 cm (36 x 38 in).
© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein.
Private Collection.
Chicago presents ‘Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective’. With more than 160 of Lichtenstein’s works, the exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago is the largest exhibition of the seminal Pop artist to date. From May 16 to September 3, 2012.]]>
Source: Art Institute of Chicago
Bringing together never-before-seen drawings, paintings, and sculpture, the Chicago exhibition presents the deepest exploration of Lichtenstein’s signature style and its myriad applications across one of the most prolific careers in 20th-century art. The result is a dazzling array of color and dynamism, traversing art historical movements, magazine advertisements and comics, nudes and heroes, sea and sky. Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective is slated to be a monumental exhibition that captures the power of Pop with works of art as fresh and revolutionary as they were 50 years ago. Bank of America is the Global Sponsor of the exhibition.
“The Art Institute of Chicago has several important works by Roy Lichtenstein in its permanent collection, including ‘Brushstroke with Spatter’ (1966) and ‘Mirror #3 (Six Panels)’ (1971),” said James Rondeau, Frances and Thomas Dittmer Chair and Curator, Department of Contemporary Art at the Art Institute. “But it has long been an ambition of mine to present these works in the context of Lichtenstein’s rich and impressive career (…) Lichtenstein, we hope to show, was a profoundly radical artist with a lasting impact on the history of 20th-century art.”
Beginning in 1961, while still teaching design courses at Douglass, Roy Lichtenstein (1923–1997) made a major departure from his previous Cubist and Abstract Expressionist styles by channeling the seemingly “artless” medium of cartoons. His painting Look Mickey (1961) and similar works—rendered in the lines and colors of flat-looking cartoons or comics—posed a new challenge to the world of fine art and won the artist attention for his groundbreaking new genus of Pop art.
From the mid 1960s onward, Lichtenstein began working more abstractly and engaging directly with art historical pictorial traditions, starting with “Landscapes” and moving into reworkings of recognizable themes and subjects such as Haystack (after Monet) and Cubist Still Life. The 1980s and 1990s found Lichtenstein creating his “Perfect/Imperfect” abstractions, a series of nudes, and, near the end of his life, luminous Chinese landscapes.
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Lichtenstein’s ‘Ohhh…Alright’ sells for $42.6 million (news, 2010)
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