Roy Lichtenstein Pop Art

Roy Lichtenstein was an instrumental cog in the movement that was pop art. Lichtenstein actually considered himself an industrial painter as opposed to an American painter, focusing on the oil and Magna paint combination prevalent in his most popular works. Lichtenstein's lines were bold and solid. Bright, vibrant colors were put to canvas in definitive regions with an absence of shading or blending. Lichtenstein worked for the majority of his career in this format, with success that rivaled most at the top of the pop art landscape.

Much of Lichtenstein's work resembles that of a comic book, and some drew their subject matter directly from the pages of DC Comics. The purpose of this movement was to expose the appeal of images as they were portrayed in mass media. The similarities Lichtenstein's works bore to comic book cells were often interpreted as copyist or plagiarism. Lichtenstein's defence was founded firmly on the progression of pop art into a form which exaggerates images found every day in society. Lichtenstein Portrait

Lichtenstein considered his art's resemblance to works produced in mass media and comic books a testament to the revolution of manipulating imagery without changing subject. The larger scale Lichtenstein's paintings became, the more nuance he was able to interject as expressions of change from the original subject. Lichtenstein's work was in fact entirely transformed from the original piece with similarities so common the art world felt threatened.

Pop art was a movement that removed mass-produced images from their context in an attempt to parallel their existence with the subjects prevalent in fine art. Reproduction, rendering and kitsch were all offspring of the pop art movement as they relate to the concept of fine art. The philosophy, in opposition to the abstract movement, was to use pieces and ideas that were found in multitudes by all demographics. Abstract expressionism was considered tied to the pop art movement, with pop art an extension of the former, but relied heavily upon an understanding of the artist's implications. The ideas expressed in abstract expressionist work were subtle and often required a trained eye's explanations. Pop art was molded in the same rebellious form that spawned abstract ideas, but with a philosophy that art should be accessible to a larger audience.

---

Andy Warhol Pop Art | Roy Lichenstein Pop Art | Modern Art