Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997)

Art by Roy Lichtenstein is irony and play. Nothing to do with reverent and serious attitude typical of the educated middle class of the second half of the twentieth century. In full blast of the American market, the objects in the '50s and '60s created a new philosophy of everyday life, become a source of inspiration and symbol of an era. Fryer, washing machine, sofa, socks are not just names in unmark shopping list of a housewife rampant in those years, but are the titles of some of the most innovative works of Lichtenstein.

Roy Lichtenstein was born in 1923 in New York City. Soon developed a passion to designing, jazz, black culture and becomes a curious boy, around the city looking for creative ideas. In 1939 he attended a few summer courses of art directed by Reginald Marsh at the Art Students League of New York. The fine arts of Marsh, made up of daily and irony, is a reference point for those in the young Lichtenstein that now he understood what would be great: the artist. Determined to overcome the teacher and find a way to be original and staff at Ohio State University where he as a teacher, Hoyt L. Sherman. After graduating, he began his career as a university lecturer. Until 1950 he painted pictures in which the influences are evident last Picasso in 1951 and is his first solo exhibition in a gallery in New York. Due to the non-renewal of the contract as a teacher, Lichtenstein moved to Cleveland with his wife where he works as a technical designer, window dresser and begins the phase of elaboration of American art in which there is an obvious and ironic turn of his pop art. About lithography ten-dollar bill (1956) Lichtenstein says he wants to create "paintings extremely simple, which gave the impression of being foolish and stupid." In the early 60's trying to fit into the current of Abstract Expressionism in those years had gained an important place in the contemporary art scene. But it is a quick foray to return soon on the shores of a creative who loves to take people as the characters of Walt Disney. The encounter with the artist Allan Kaprow - whose inspiration is the trivial - is another turning point for Lichtenstein who follows in his irreverent way of understanding art. E 'in 1961 the first large oil painting which depicts figures labeled with color contours and industrial points of the screen: Mickey Mouse, look! But not only characters from Disney, to fuel his creativity are the characters of the packs of chewing gum, i love comics and action, trade catalogs. The staff at the Leo Castelli Gallery is the turning point of giving it renown and prestige. Now you can leave teaching and devote himself exclusively to painting until his death that will take September 29, 1997 in New York.

The main question that crosses the entire career of Lichtenstein is: it is perceived as a work of art? And in the search for the answer, his art takes a more and more innovative and unconventional, it becomes two-dimensional surface, this parody, appropriation and reinterpretation of past works. Everything is emphasized - the colors, the outline - through networks and tools that make the painting in the press and that become the stylistic hallmark of the American artist making it one of the King of Pop-Art