Roy Lichtenstein

Born in 1923 in New York, Roy Lichtenstein is an American artist and one of the pioneers of the Pop Art movement. He studied art at the Art Students League of New York and at the University of Ohio in 1949. Working as a teacher at the Rutgers University, he meets Allan Kaprow who encouraged him to rework pop imagery. He then returned to New York where he stayed until his death in 1997.

Alike Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns, Lichtenstein places pop culture of the 1950s at the center of his work while going away from Abstract Expressionism. Working on commercial advertising and imagery, his paintings are known for his use of Benday dots on large scale canvases, usually used in comics and journals for textures or tie and dye effects. In his Brushstrokes series, started in 1960, the primary colours and audacious traits are inspired by reproductions of Cézanne, Mondrian and Picasso.