The Irony of Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein 1923-1997

Roy Lichtenstein
The River from the Landscape Series, 1985
Woodcut, lithograph and screenprint
Image: 37 1/4 x 52 1/2 inches
Sheet: 40 1/4 x 55 5/8 inches
Edition: 51/60
Signed, numbered, dated lower right: R Lichtenstein ’85
For sale at Surovek Gallery

Roy Lichtenstein was not only a sophisticated and well-educated New Yorker with a Masters of Fine Arts degree, he was an educator who taught art at Ohio State and Rutgers.

Roy Lichtenstein
Masterpiece, 1962

He took a lot of heat in the 1960s for his mechanical style, his use of Ben-Day dots and comic book panels…the Pop art that changed the way art is viewed today. He turned “low art” into “high art” and tapped into the consumer culture of America in the ’60s. Lichtenstein had the last laugh, with an outstanding career. His 1962, Masterpiece, a tongue-in-cheek painting that reflected  his career, sold in 2017 for $165 million.

Roy Lichtenstein
Green Face, 1989
from the Brushstroke Figures Series
Lithograph, screenprint, waxtype and woodcut printed in colors on cold-pressed Saunders Waterford paper
Image: 56 3/4 by 36 3/8 inches
Sheet: 58 3/4 by 41 inches
Numbered 26/60 (total edition includes eight artist’s proofs)
Signed in pencil, dated, numbered with the blind- and inkstamp (verso) of the printer and publisher, Graphic Studio, Tampa
For sale at Surovek Gallery

Later in his career Lichtenstein began to create series of works whose subjects were more highbrow than comics, but still in his inimitable style. He reproduced paintings by European masters. He did a series of Brushstroke paintings that, like much of his work, was done ironically. “Although I had played with this idea before” he said, “it started with a comic book image of a mad artist crossing out, with a large brushstroke ‘X,’ the face of a friend that was haunting him. … Then I went on to do paintings of brushstroke alone. I was very interested in characterizing or caricaturing a brushstroke.”

Lichtenstein went on to do a series of Brushstroke sculptures, many in bronze, that contrast the flow of the brushstroke with the solidity of the metal.

Roy Lichtenstein
Two Paintings, 1984
Woodcut, lithograph, silkscreen with collage
45.88 x 39.06 inches
Signed, numbered, dated: 37/60 R Lichtenstein ‘84
For sale at Surovek Gallery

A master printmaker, Lichtenstein also created fine art prints in woodcut, lithograph and even collage.

Roy Lichtenstein
Reflections on Crash, 1990
Lithograph, screen print and metalized PVC on paper
Image: 53 1/16 x 69″
Sheet: 59 1/8 x 75″
Signed, numbered, dated: 56/68 R Lichtenstein ‘90
For sale at Surovek Gallery

Many of Roy Lichtenstein’s works have been donated to the Whitney Museum. The Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, headed by his widow, Dorothy Lichtenstein, who has supported art projects at the Whitney, the National Gallery in Washington and other venues around the country.

Please contact us if you would like more information about the works of Roy Lichtenstein available at Surovek Gallery.