'Masterpiece' (1962).
Roy Lichtenstein is the second most famous pop art painter in the world, after Andy Warhol. He is best-known for taking images from comic strips and blowing them up to huge formats. More than any other artist, Lichtenstein elevated comics into an art form, something he is both praised and reviled for by comic book fans. Admirers claim that he boosted the medium's public image and made people see comics in a more positive light. Detractors dismiss these claims and feel that he kept prejudices about comics intact, while getting rich on the backs of other people's talent. In either case, Lichtenstein did create more serious discussion about the nature and artistry of comics.
Life and career
Roy Lichtenstein was born in 1923 in New York City, as the son of a Jewish real estate broker. In high school, he attended summer classes at the Art Students League of New York, where Reginald Marsh was his tutor. After studying fine arts at Ohio State University, he worked as an art teacher, holding his first exhibitions in the 1950s. Among the biggest influences on his work were Alan Kaprow, Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Paul Klee, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Walt Disney and Hergé. Early in his career, Lichtenstein worked in an abstract-expressionist style, before by 1958 associating himself with the pop art movement.
Pop art took inspiration from mass-produced media, like advertising billboards, film stills, newspaper and magazine photographs. Lichtenstein in particular focused on comics. In the early 1960s, general audiences read newspaper comics and/or comic books, but few attributed any value to the medium. For most, it was just a source of cheap, mindless, throwaway entertainment. Lichtenstein, however, liked the emotional directness of comic strip panels. Comic artists use linear drawings, bright colors and easy-to-follow dialogue. This makes their stories inviting to read and gaze at. Lichtenstein picked out certain images that fascinated him and copied them on a large canvas. To heighten the artificiality, he kept the speech balloons, narrative captions and onomatopeia intact. Sometimes he deliberately enlargened the drawing until the viewer can see printing ink patterns that readers normally only notice if they use a magnifiying glass, the so-called "ben day dots". By isolating the panels from their original narrative context, the viewer has no idea what brought the characters in Lichtenstein's paintings into their specific situation, nor what will happen next. This gives his art a bewildering, ironic effect. At the same time, he also demonstrated how each of those hundreds of comic strip panels are, in fact, miniature graphic masterpieces. Lichtenstein therefore brought more serious attention to an often despised form of entertainment.
In 1968, Lichtenstein made two paintings ordered by Time Magazine: one depicting U.S. presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, the other commenting on gun ownership and cultivation in the United States: 'The Gun in America'. Later in his career, Lichtenstein started working in a more abstract style and became more socially conscious. His painting 'Save Our Planet, Save Our Water' (1971) made a stance against pollution, while 'Against Apartheid' (1983) protested against the apartheid system in South Africa. During the 1988 U.S. presidential elections, he designed an election poster for Candidate Michael Dukakis, who, despite his efforts, lost. One of Lichtenstein's final projects before his death in 1997 was the logo for Dreamworks Records.
'Look Mickey' (1961).
Criticism
While Lichtenstein's pop art made him world famous in the 1960s, he also attracted criticism. Some dismissed him as a mere plagiarist. Few of the original comic artists he borrowed images from were ever credited, let alone asked permission. In 2013, Rian Hughes started the Image Duplicator Project, which tries to reappropriate Lichtenstein's images "into something interesting and original". One of the involved artists was Dave Gibbons, whose work 'WHAAT?!' spoofs Lichtenstein's 'WHAAM!'. Russ Heath, one of the artists whose work was "plagiarized" by Lichtenstein, made a bitter comic strip about his feelings towards the matter, titled 'Hero in Action: Bottle of Wine' (2014), inked and colorized by Darwyn Cooke. Accusations of plagiarism continued when Lichtenstein devoted the latter part of his career adapting famous paintings by Paul Cézanne, Vincent Van Gogh, Leonardo Da Vinci, Carlo Carrà, Piet Mondriaan and Pablo Picasso into pop art reinterpretations.
Another common criticism is that Lichtenstein supposedly just created an even bigger divide between comics and actual "art". Art critics still deem the original comics as inferior pulp, while regarding his copies as artistic masterpieces. Lichtenstein didn't help matters much by often clumsily tracing and mimicking the original drawings. Whether this approach was a sign of his personal lack of drawing skills or done on purpose, it still contributed to the common prejudice that comic artists are basically incompetent draftsmen. All this while the original comic panels often look far more skilled than Lichtenstein's imitations. Art Spiegelman in particular felt that thanks to Lichtenstein the art mainstream merely patronized comics, rather than reappreciate them. As he put it: "Lichtenstein did no more or less for comics than Andy Warhol did for soup." Spiegelman also made a comic strip, 'High Art Lowdown' (1990), about his issues concerning the matter.
'M-maybe' by Roy Lichtenstein, and the original from Girls' Romances #110 by Tony Abruzzo.
Praise
In Lichtenstein's defense: his "imitations" were never completely identical to the source material. He purposefully changed lines, colours, speech balloons and the composition in a subtle way. The original size of the images were enlarged and he sometimes used only a tiny detail rather than the entire picture. The close-ups are often so extreme that the viewer can see the raster points and Ben-Day dots of the original comic book page. Lichtenstein also mocked his own public image at times. In 'Image Duplicator' (1963), a close-up of two eyes lifted from Jack Kirby and Paul Reinman's 'X-Men' received a new speech balloon. The character in the image now asks "What do you know about my image duplicator?" 'Self-Portrait' (1978) depicts the painter with a mirror for a head, acknowledging that he is basically a copycat. In 1964, Lichtenstein was invited to a meeting of the National Cartoonists Society, where he defended himself as just "a guy who makes a living". Mort Walker adapted the experience into a two-page comic strip, 'Grand Theft Lichtenstein Caper of 1964', and took a sympathetic view towards the painter.
Whether Lichtenstein was a blessing or a curse for the comics medium remains a matter of opinion. But he certainly sparked debate about comics' artistic value. From the 1960s on, critics, essayists and journalists started taking the medium more seriously. A more general consensus grew that it was, in fact, an artform on par with other, pre-existing and already well-established means of creative expression. Essayist Claude Beylie and comic artist Morris each independently named comics the "Ninth Art", following architecture (1), sculpture (2), painting (3), dance (4), music (5), poetry (6), cinema (7) and television (8). By bringing comic book panels on museum walls, Lichtenstein made viewers approach the medium with different eyes. While critics debated the value of his own paintings, discussion naturally arose whether the same would apply to comics in general. His striking paintings may have brought far more people to this discussion point than any of the dozens well-written essays, articles, books or documentaries on the subject.
Other graphic artists who admired the pop art legend are Hergé, Ever Meulen, Charles Burns, Guy Peellaert, Bill Griffith, Peter Haars, Gal (Gerard Alsteens), Derek Boshier and Ismael Álvarez.
Lichtenstein's source material
Among Lichtenstein's source material were Jack Abel stories from DC's 'Star Spangled War Stories' and 'Our Fighting Forces' ('Live Ammo (Ha! Ha! Ha!)', 1962; 'Crak!', 1963 and 'Torpedo... Los!', 1963), Tony Abruzzo stories from DC's 'Girl's Romances' and 'Secret Hearts' ('Drowning Girl', 1962; 'Hopeless', 1963; 'In the Car', 1963; 'Thinking of Him', 1963; 'No Thank You!', 1964; 'Oh Jeff...I Love You Too... But...', 1964; 'Sleeping Girl', 1964; 'Ohhh... Alright...', 1964 and 'M-Maybe', 1965), a Ross Andru story from DC's 'All-American Men of War' ('Bratatat!', 1963), Carl Barks' 'Donald Duck' ('Reflections: Portrait of a Duck', 1989), Martin Branner's 'Winnie Winkle' ('Engagement Ring', 1961), Ernie Bushmiller's 'Nancy and Sluggo' ('Reflections on 'Nancy', 1989), Hy Eisman ('Girl in Window', 1963), a Myron Fass story from 'Tales of Horror' by Toby Press ('The Kiss', 1961), Ted Galindo ('Forget It! Forget Me!', 1962; 'Kiss II'; 1962, 'Kiss III', 1962; 'Masterpiece', 1962 and 'I Know How You Must Feel, Brad...', 1963), a Dick Giordano story from Fawcett's 'Strange Suspense Stories' ('Brushstrokes', 1965) and 'Billy the Kid' ('Foot and Hand', 1964), Jerry Grandenetti stories from 'All-American Men of War' ('Jet Pilot', 1962; 'Brattata' 1962; 'Bratatat', 1963; 'Okay! Hot Shot, Okay!'; 1963 and 'As I Opened Fire', 1964 ) and 'Our Fighting Forces' ('Arrrrrff!', 1962), Bob Grant and Bob Totten's 'Mickey Mouse' ('Look Mickey!', 1961), a Russ Heath story from 'Star Spangled War Stories' ('Blam', 1962 ), Hergé ('Tintin Reading', 1993), Milton Caniff's 'Steve Canyon' ('Mr. Bellamy', 1962), Jack Kirby and Bruno Premiani's 'X-Men' ('Image Duplicator', 1963), Joe Kubert stories from 'Our Army at War' ('Live Ammo (Blang)', 1962; 'Live Ammo (Tzing!)', 1962; 'Live Ammo (Take Cover), 1962; 'Scared Witless', 1962; 'GRRRRRRRRRRRRR', 1965), Irv Novick stories from 'All-American Men of War' ('Whaam!', 1963) and 'Our Fighting Forces' ('Flatten -- Sand fleas!', 1962; 'Sweet Dreams, Baby!', 1965), William Overgard's 'Steve Roper' ('I Can See the Whole Room! ... and There's Nobody in It!', 1961), Arthur Peddy ('The Sound of Music', 1964), H.G. Peter ('Reflections: Wonder Woman', 1989), Jim Pike ('Good Morning, Darling', 1964; 'V-Vicki, I Thought I Heard Your Voice', 1964), John Romita stories from 'Heart Throbs' ('Knock-Knock', 1961), 'Secret Hearts' ('Crying Girl', 1964) and 'Girls' Romances' ('We Rose up Slowly (1964)'), Bud Sagendorf's 'Popeye' ('Popeye', 1961 and 'Wimpy (Tweet)', 1961), Mike Sekowsky stories from 'Girl's Romances' ('It Is... With Me!', 1963 and 'Happy Tears', 1964) and 'Justice League of America' ('Mad Scientist', 1963; 'Eccentric Mad Scientist', 1965), George Tuska's 'Buck Rogers' ('One Thing's Sure... He's Still Got Those Emeralds!', 1961) and Chic Young's 'Blondie' ('Two Paintings: Dagwood', 1983; 'Reflections: Sunday Morning', 1989; 'Yoo-Hoo', 1989 and 'Reflections on the Scream', 1990).
'Cow Triptych: Cow Going Abstract' (1982).
Comic artist?
It might be a stretch to name Lichtenstein a comic artist, seeing that he took panels from other comics rather draw a comic strip himself. Yet throughout his career, he did create some illustrated narrative sequences. Some of his early works were inspired by imagery found in instruction guides. They all show an everyday action depicted in two sequences. 'Bread in Bag' (1961) visualizes how to put bread in a bag, while 'Step-on Can with Leg' (1961) demonstrates how to operate a step-on can. 'Girl/Spray Can' (1963) is a similar two-sequential drawing based on an advertising for hair spray. Some of Lichtenstein's works also make use of sequential imagery, but the images themselves stay the same, only the colors change, much like a painting by Andy Warhol: 'Castelli Handshake Poster' (1962), 'The Collars' (1963) and 'Turkey Shopping Bag' (1964). 'Woman: Sunlight, Moonlight' (1996) shows two female busts in mirrorview, but with different hair colours, separated by a frame line. 'Like New' (1962) consists of two panels depicting the contours of a stamp. In the first panel we see a white stain, in the second the stain has been removed.
'The Eddie Diptych' (1962).
Lichtenstein used more variation in other works. The 'Eddie Diptych' (1962), based on a romance comic by Ted Galindo, uses both a descriptive panel to inform the reader about the events that happened before, as well as a confrontational scene between a mother and her daughter. A similar work is 'We Rose Up Slowly' (1964), lifted from John Romita Sr.'s 'Girl's Romances'. This painting depicts a descriptive panel in the left corner and an image of a couple in embrace in the right. 'Live Ammo (Take Cover) Panel 1 of 4' (1962) reproduces two panels from the war comic series 'Our Army at War 121' in a diptych. The first image shows a soldier yelling 'Take cover!'. The second image is a close-up of his face, wondering where his enemies might be hiding. Both panels have the lines 'Live Ammo' written over them. Three successive images can be seen in 'As I Opened Fire' (1964), consisting of three close-ups of artillery, copied from a Jerry Grandenetti story from 'All-American Men of War'.
Lichtenstein also made a few art works with sequential imagery that didn't rely on other's people creativity. 'Cow Triptych: Cow Going Abstract' (1974) portrays a cow gradually transforming into an abstract figure. In 'Portrait Triptych' (1974), he did the same with the portrait of a girl, while 'Bull Plates' (1989) turns a bull into an abstract image. Though, for completist sake, even this idea wasn't entirely new. In 1945-1946, Pablo Picasso already made a series of sequences which show the gradual transformation of a bull into an abstract work. Whether Lichtenstein was aware of this work is unknown, but his version uses only three successive images, rather than Picasso's eleven.
Recognition
Lichtenstein received many honorary decorates throughout his career. In 1979, he was inaugurated into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The painter also appeared in issue #344 (April 1996) of Mad Magazine, featured in their 'Celebrity Snaps' feature, photographed holding an issue of Mad.
'As I Opened Fire', by Roy Lichtenstein (1964)...
...and the original from Men of War #90 by Jerry Grandenetti.