Lichtenstein - Basic Art Series, Book

American painter Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) pioneered a new panorama in American art, emerging on a scene dominated by Abstract Expressionism in late 1950s New York and defining a new artistic vocabulary for a new era. With his innovative use of industrial production techniques and trivial, everyday images such as cartoons, serial images and advertising, Lichtenstein joined contemporaries such as Andy Warhol and James Rosenquist in reflecting on and satirising the media, American mass society and consumer culture.

Works such as Look, Mickey! (1961), Drowning Girl (1963) and Whaam! (1963) employed mass production techniques, particularly Ben-Day dot printing, to create a magnifying effect and a pixelated "dotted" style for which Lichtenstein became synonymous.

This book provides an essential overview of Lichtenstein's career, tracing his early Pop statements and his later "responses" in the form of brushstrokes to Abstract Expressionism and reinterpretations of modern masterpieces. We analyse his prominent position in mid-century modernism and the ways in which his works are so critical of 20th century America.