Editing Roy Lichtenstein (section)

== Career ==
[[File:Roy Lichtenstein, Cap de Barcelona 08019-1140-1 DSC09566.jpg|thumb|''[[El Cap de Barcelona|Cap de Barcelona]]'', 1992 sculpture, mixed media, [[Barcelona]]]]
Lichtenstein then left New York to study at [[Ohio State University]], which offered studio courses and a degree in fine arts.<ref name="rlf-chronology" /> His studies were interrupted by a three-year stint in the Army during and after World War II between 1943 and 1946.<ref name="rlf-chronology" /> After being in training programs for languages, engineering in the [[Army Specialized Training Program]],<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-roy-lichtenstein-11994 | title=Oral history interview with Roy Lichtenstein, 1963 November 15-1964 January 15 &#124; Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution }}</ref> and pilot training, all of which were cancelled, Lichtenstein served as an orderly, draftsman, and artist.<ref name="rlf-chronology" />

Lichtenstein returned home to visit his dying father and was discharged from the Army with eligibility for the [[Servicemen's Readjustment Act (USA)|G.I. Bill]].<ref name="rlf-Hendrickson" /> Lichtenstein returned to studies in Ohio under the supervision of one of his teachers, [[Hoyt L. Sherman]], who is widely regarded to have had a significant impact on his future work (Lichtenstein would later name a new studio he funded at OSU as the Hoyt L. Sherman Studio Art Center).<ref>{{cite web | publisher = The Ohio State University | title = Sculpture. Facilities | url= http://art.osu.edu/?p=ds_facilities | access-date =November 12, 2007}}</ref>

Lichtenstein entered the graduate program at Ohio State and was hired as an art instructor, a post he held on and off for the next ten years. In 1949, Lichtenstein earned a [[Master of Fine Arts]] degree from Ohio State University.

In 1951, Lichtenstein had his first [[solo exhibition]] at the Carlebach Gallery in New York.<ref name="rlf-chronology" /><ref name="rlf-exhibitions">{{cite web
 |url         = http://www.lichtensteinfoundation.org/solexint.htm
 |title       = Roy Lichtenstein Exhibitions..... 1946–2009
 |access-date  = December 8, 2009
|first       = Clare
 |last        = Bell
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20100120010003/http://www.lichtensteinfoundation.org/solexint.htm
 |archive-date = January 20, 2010
|df          = mdy-all
}}</ref>
He moved to [[Cleveland]] that same year, where he remained for six years, although Lichtenstein frequently traveled back to New York. During this time, he undertook jobs as varied as a draftsman to a window decorator in between periods of painting.<ref name="rlf-chronology" />  Lichtenstein's work at this time fluctuated between [[Cubism]] and [[Expressionism]].<ref name="rlf-Hendrickson" /> In 1954, his first son, David Hoyt Lichtenstein, now a songwriter, was born. His second son, [[Mitchell Lichtenstein]], was born two years later.<ref name="rlf-Coplans31">{{harvnb|Coplans|1972|p=31
}}</ref>

In 1957,  Lichtenstein moved back to upstate New York and began teaching again.<ref name="rlf-Coplans" /> It was at this time that he adopted the [[Abstract Expressionism]] style, being a late convert to this style of painting.<ref name="rlf-Hendrickson9495">{{harvnb| Hendrickson | 1988 | pp= 94, 95 }}</ref> Lichtenstein began teaching in upstate New York at the [[State University of New York at Oswego]] in 1958. Around this time, he began to incorporate hidden images of cartoon characters such as [[Mickey Mouse]] and [[Bugs Bunny]] into his abstract works.<ref name="rlf-Lobel">{{harvnb|Lobel|2002|pp=32–33}}</ref>

=== Rise to prominence ===
In 1960, Lichtenstein started teaching at [[Rutgers University]] where he was heavily influenced by [[Allan Kaprow]], who was also a teacher at the university. This environment helped reignite Lichtenstein's interest in Proto-pop imagery.<ref name="rlf-chronology"/>
In 1961, he began his first pop paintings using cartoon images and techniques derived from the appearance of commercial printing. This phase would continue to 1965, and included the use of advertising imagery suggesting consumerism and homemaking.<ref name="rlf-Hendrickson" />
Lichtenstein's first work to feature the large-scale use of hard-edged figures and [[Ben Day process|Ben-Day dots]] was ''[[Look Mickey]]'' (1961, [[National Gallery of Art]], Washington, D.C.).<ref name="rlf-Alloway13">{{harvnb|Alloway|1983| p = 13}}</ref> This piece came from a challenge from one of his sons, who pointed to a [[Mickey Mouse (comic book)|Mickey Mouse comic book]] and said; "I bet you can't paint as good as that, eh, Dad?"<ref name="Great-20th-Century-Artists">{{harvnb|Lucie-Smith | 1999}}</ref> That same year, Lichtenstein produced six other works with recognizable characters from gum wrappers and cartoons.<ref name="rlf-Lobel"/>

In 1961, [[Leo Castelli]] started displaying Lichtenstein's work at his gallery in New York. Lichtenstein had his first one-man show at the Castelli gallery in 1962; the entire collection was bought by influential collectors before the show even opened.<ref name="rlf-chronology" /> A group of paintings produced between 1961 and 1962 focused on solitary household objects such as sneakers, hot dogs, and golf balls.<ref>[http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5074051 Roy Lichtenstein, ''The Ring'' (1962)] [[Christie's]] Post War And Contemporary Art Evening Sale, New York, May 13, 2008.</ref> In September 1963, Lichtenstein took a leave of absence from his teaching position at [[Douglass Residential College (Rutgers University)|Douglass College]] at Rutgers.<ref>{{harvnb|Marter|1999|p=37}}</ref>

Lichtenstein's works were inspired by comics featuring war and romantic stories. "At that time," he later recounted, "I was interested in anything I could use as a subject that was emotionally strong – usually love, war, or something that was highly charged and emotional subject matter to be opposite to the removed and deliberate painting techniques".<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://artdependence.com/articles/christies-to-offer-kiss-iii-by-roy-lichtenstein/ |title=ArtDependence {{!}} Christie's to Offer Kiss III by Roy Lichtenstein |last=ArtDependence |website=artdependence.com |language=en |access-date=2019-11-09 |archive-date=2019-11-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191109203702/https://artdependence.com/articles/christies-to-offer-kiss-iii-by-roy-lichtenstein/ |url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Period of Lichtenstein's highest profile ===
[[File:Roy Lichtenstein Drowning Girl.jpg|thumb|right|''[[Drowning Girl]]'' (1963). On display at the [[Museum of Modern Art, New York]]]]
It was at this time that Lichtenstein began to find fame not just in America but worldwide. He moved back to New York to be at the center of the art scene and resigned from [[Rutgers University]] in 1964 to concentrate on his painting.<ref name="rlf-Hendrickson96">{{harvnb|Hendrickson |1988| p= 96 }}</ref> Lichtenstein used oil and [[Magna (paint)|Magna]] (early acrylic) paint in his best known works, such as ''[[Drowning Girl]]'' (1963), which was appropriated from the lead story in [[DC Comics]]' ''Secret Hearts'' No. 83, drawn by [[Tony Abruzzo]]. (''Drowning Girl'' now hangs in the [[Museum of Modern Art, New York]].<ref name="rlf-Hendrickson31">{{harvnb|Hendrickson| 1988| p= 31 }}</ref>) ''Drowning Girl'' also features thick outlines, bold colors and Ben-Day dots, as if created by photographic reproduction. Of his own work, Lichtenstein would say that the Abstract Expressionists "put things down on the canvas and responded to what they had done, to the color positions and sizes. My style looks completely different, but the nature of putting down lines pretty much is the same; mine just don't come out looking calligraphic, like [[Jackson Pollock|Pollock]]'s or [[Franz Kline|Kline]]'s."<ref>{{cite news
 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/09/30/arts/roy-lichtenstein-pop-master-dies-at-73.html
 |title=Roy Lichtenstein, Pop Master, Dies at 73
 |first=Michael
 |last=Kimmelman
 |date=September 30, 1997
|work=[[The New York Times]]
 |access-date=November 12, 2007
}}</ref>

Rather than attempt to reproduce his subjects, Lichtenstein's work tackled the way in which the mass media portrays them. However, he would never take himself too seriously, saying: "I think my work is different from comic strips – but I wouldn't call it transformation; I don't think that whatever is meant by it is important to art".<ref name="rlf-Coplans54">{{harvnb|Coplans|1972| p = 54 }}</ref> When Lichtenstein's work was first exhibited, many art critics of the time challenged its originality. His work was harshly criticized as vulgar and empty. The title of a ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'' magazine article in 1964 asked, "Is He the Worst Artist in the U.S.?"<ref>{{cite news|first=Carol |last=Vogel |date=April 5, 2012|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/arts/design/a-new-traveling-show-of-lichtenstein-works.html |title=A New Traveling Show of Lichtenstein Works|work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> Lichtenstein responded to such claims by offering responses such as the following: "The closer my work is to the original, the more threatening and critical the content. However, my work is entirely transformed in that my purpose and perception are entirely different. I think my paintings are critically transformed, but it would be difficult to prove it by any rational line of argument."<ref name="rlf-Coplans52">{{harvnb|Coplans|1972| p = 52 }}</ref> He discussed experiencing this heavy criticism in an interview with April Bernard and Mimi Thompson in 1986. Suggesting that it was at times difficult to be criticized, Lichtenstein said, "I don't doubt when I'm actually painting, it's the criticism that makes you wonder, it does."<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Bernard |first1=April |last2=Thompson |first2=Mimi |url=http://bombsite.com/issues/14/articles/726 |title=Roy Lichtenstein |magazine=[[BOMB Magazine]]|date=Winter 1986|access-date=July 14, 2011 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120720131625/http://bombsite.com/issues/14/articles/726 |archive-date=July 20, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Lichtenstein's celebrated image ''[[Whaam!]]'' (1963) depicts a fighter aircraft firing a rocket into an enemy plane, with a red-and-yellow explosion. The cartoon style is heightened by the use of the [[onomatopoeia|onomatopoeic]] lettering ''"Whaam!"'' and the boxed caption ''"I pressed the fire control ... and ahead of me rockets blazed through the sky ..."'' This [[diptych]] is large in scale, measuring 1.7 x 4.0 m (5&nbsp;ft 7 in x 13&nbsp;ft 4 in).<ref name=Tate_Whaam>{{cite web
 |url=http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=8782
 |work=Tate Collection
 |title=Whaam!
 |first=Roy
 |last=Lichtenstein
 |access-date=January 27, 2008
}}</ref> ''Whaam'' follows the comic strip-based themes of some of his previous paintings and is part of a body of war-themed work created between 1962 and 1964. It is one of his two notable large war-themed paintings. It was purchased by the [[Tate]] Gallery in 1966, after being exhibited at the [[Leo Castelli]] Gallery in 1963, and (now at the Tate Modern) has remained in their collection ever since. In 1968, the [[Darmstadt]] entrepreneur Karl Ströher acquired several major works by Lichtenstein, such as ''Nurse'' (1964), ''Compositions I'' (1964), ''[[We Rose Up Slowly|We rose up slowly]]'' (1964) and ''[[Yellow and Green Brushstrokes]]'' (1966). After being on loan at the [[Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt|Hessiches Landesmuseum Darmstadt]] for several years, the founding director of the [[Museum für Moderne Kunst]] Frankfurt, [[Peter Iden]], was able to acquire a total of 87 works<ref>[[Peter Iden|Iden, Peter]], [[Rolf Lauter|Lauter, Rolf]] (ed.), ''Bilder für Frankfurt'', Bestandskatalog Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main 1985, cover image, pp 82–83, 176–178. {{ISBN|978-3-7913-0702-2}}.</ref> from the Ströher collection<ref>[[Rolf Lauter|Lauter, Rolf]]. ''Das Museum für Moderne Kunst und die Sammlung Ströher. Zur Geschichte einer Privatsammlung'', MMK in der Galerie Jahrhunderthalle Hoechst, Frankfurt am Main 1994, {{ISBN|3-7973-0585-0}}</ref> in 1981, primarily American Pop Art and Minimal Art for the museum under construction until 1991.<ref name="mmk_stroeher">{{cite web | url=https://collection.mmk.art/en/collection-stroeher/ | title=Collection Ströher | publisher=MUSEUM<sup>MMK</sup> für Moderne Kunst | work=mmk.art | accessdate=21 April 2024 | quote=The eighty-seven works from the former collection of Karl Ströher, an industrialist of Darmstadt, form the core of the museum’s collection. Acquired by the city of Frankfurt in 1981‒82, they were a determining factor in the founding of the MMK. Ströher’s collection was in turn based on the former collection of the New York insurance broker Leon Kraushar. Most of the works date from the 1960s and represent the American Pop Art and Minimalist currents. They include workgroups by such artists as Carl Andre, Francis Bacon, Walter De Maria, Jim Dine, Dan Flavin, Jasper Johns, Donald Judd, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, George Segal, Frank Stella, Cy Twombly or Andy Warhol, as well as German artists of the period, among them Blinky Palermo, Gerhard Richter, Reiner Ruthenbeck and Franz Erhard Walther.}}</ref>

Lichtenstein began experimenting with sculpture around 1964, demonstrating a knack for the form that was at odds with the insistent flatness of his paintings. For ''Head of Girl'' (1964), and ''Head with Red Shadow'' (1965), Lichtenstein collaborated with a ceramicist who sculpted the form of the head out of clay. He then applied a glaze to create the same sort of graphic motifs that he used in his paintings; the application of black lines and Ben-Day dots to three-dimensional objects resulted in a flattening of the form.<ref>Lucy Davies (November 17, 2008), [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/3563299/Roy-Lichtenstein-a-new-dimension-in-art.html# Roy Lichtenstein: a new dimension in art] ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]''.</ref>

Most of Lichtenstein's best-known works are relatively close, but not exact, copies of comic book panels, a subject he largely abandoned in 1965, though he would occasionally incorporate comics into his work in different ways in later decades. These panels were originally drawn by such comics artists as [[Jack Kirby]] and [[DC Comics]] artists [[Russ Heath]], Tony Abruzzo, [[Irv Novick]], and [[Jerry Grandenetti]], who rarely received any credit. [[Jack Cowart]], executive director of the Lichtenstein Foundation, contests the notion that Lichtenstein was a copyist, saying: "Roy's work was a wonderment of the graphic formulae and the codification of sentiment that had been worked out by others. The panels were changed in scale, color, treatment, and in their implications. There is no exact copy."<ref name="boston">{{cite news | last = Beam | first = Alex | title = Lichtenstein: creator or copycat? |work=Boston Globe  | date = October 18, 2006 | url = http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2006/10/18/lichtenstein_creator_or_copycat/ | access-date =July 16, 2007 }}</ref> However, some<ref name=publishersweekly_spiegelman>{{cite web
 |url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/406197-Spiegelman_Goes_to_College.php
 |work=Publishers Weekly
 |title=Art Spiegelman Goes to College
 |first=Peter
 |last=Sanderson
 |access-date=March 26, 2010
|date=April 24, 2007
}}</ref> have been critical of Lichtenstein's use of comic-book imagery and art pieces, especially insofar as that use has been seen as endorsement of a patronizing view of comics by the art mainstream;<ref name=publishersweekly_spiegelman /> cartoonist [[Art Spiegelman]] commented that "Lichtenstein did no more or less for comics than [[Andy Warhol]] did for soup."<ref name=publishersweekly_spiegelman />

Lichtenstein's works based on enlarged panels from comic books engendered a widespread debate about their merits as art.<ref name="PApRLda7">{{cite news|url=https://apnews.com/43b85ac8a5a6ab361d2adb164e6a10ce|title=Pop Art pioneer Roy Lichtenstein dead at 73|access-date=June 15, 2013|date=September 29, 1997|work=[[Associated Press]]|last=Monroe|first=Robert}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.lichtensteinfoundation.org/lifemagroy.htm|title=Is He the Worst Artist in the U.S.?|access-date=June 10, 2013|date=January 31, 1964|magazine=[[Life (magazine)|Life]]|publisher=LichtensteinFoundation.org|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131104111859/http://www.lichtensteinfoundation.org/lifemagroy.htm|archive-date=November 4, 2013}}</ref> Lichtenstein himself admitted, "I am nominally copying, but I am really restating the copied thing in other terms. In doing that, the original acquires a totally different texture. It isn't thick or thin brushstrokes, it's dots and flat colours and unyielding lines."<ref name=W>{{cite journal|url=http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/wow|title=WOW!, Lichtenstein: A Retrospective at Tate Modern II|last=Dunne|first=Nathan|journal=Tate Etc.|issue=27: Spring 2013|date=May 13, 2013}}</ref> [[Eddie Campbell]] blogged that "Lichtenstein took a tiny picture, smaller than the palm of the hand, printed in four color inks on newsprint and blew it up to the conventional size at which 'art' is made and exhibited and finished it in paint on canvas."<ref name=L>{{cite web|url=http://eddiecampbell.blogspot.co.uk/2007/02/lichtenstein_04.html|title=Lichtenstein|access-date=July 28, 2013|date=February 4, 2007|last=Campbell |first=Eddie}}</ref> With regard to Lichtenstein, [[Bill Griffith]] once said, "There's high art and there's low art. And then there's high art that can take low art, bring it into a high art context, appropriate it and elevate it into something else."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v1_2/griffith/|title=Still asking, "Are we having fun yet?"|access-date=July 28, 2013|year=2003|last=Griffith|first=Bill|work=Interdisciplinary Comics Studies|volume=1|issue=2|publisher=Image TexT/[[University of Florida]]}}</ref>

Although Lichtenstein's comic-based work gained some acceptance, concerns are still expressed by critics who say Lichtenstein did not credit, pay any royalties to, or seek permission from the original artists or copyright holders.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2013/may/image-duplicator-pop-arts-comic-theft|title=Image Duplicator: pop art's comic debt|access-date=June 18, 2013|date=May 13, 2013|last=Steven|first=Rachael|work=[[Creative Review]]|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002013823/http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2013/may/image-duplicator-pop-arts-comic-theft|archive-date=October 2, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/02/02/deconstructing-lichtenstein-source-comics-revealed-and-credited/ |title=Deconstructing Lichtenstein: Source Comics Revealed and Credited |access-date=June 23, 2013 |date=February 2, 2011 |last=Childs |first=Brian |publisher=Comics Alliance |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130112223049/http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/02/02/deconstructing-lichtenstein-source-comics-revealed-and-credited/ |archive-date=January 12, 2013 }}</ref> In an interview for a [[BBC Four]] documentary in 2013, [[Alastair Sooke]] asked the comic book artist [[Dave Gibbons]] if he considered Lichtenstein a plagiarist. Gibbons replied: "I would say 'copycat'. In music for instance, you can't just whistle somebody else's tune or perform somebody else's tune, no matter how badly, without somehow crediting and giving payment to the original artist. That's to say, this is 'WHAAM! by Roy Lichtenstein, after Irv Novick'."<ref name="TPoL">{{cite web|url=http://paulgravett.com/index.php/articles/article/the_principality_of_lichtenstein|title=The Principality of Lichtenstein: From 'WHAAM!' to 'WHAAT?'|access-date=June 30, 2013|date=March 17, 2013|last=Gravett|first=Paul|publisher=PaulGravett.com}}</ref> Sooke himself maintains that "Lichtenstein transformed Novick's artwork in a number of subtle but crucial ways."<ref name="www.bbc.com 20130717-pop-artist-or-copy-cat">{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20130717-pop-artist-or-copy-cat|publisher=BBC Culture|access-date=July 19, 2013|date=July 17, 2013|title=Is Lichtenstein a great modern artist or a copy cat?|last=Sooke|first=Alistair}}</ref>

[[City University London]] lecturer Ernesto Priego notes that Lichtenstein's failure to credit the original creators of his comic works was a reflection on the decision by [[National Periodical Publications]], the predecessor of [[DC Comics]], to omit any credit for their writers and artists:
{{Blockquote|text=Besides embodying the cultural prejudice against comic books as vehicles of art, examples like Lichtenstein's appropriation of the vocabulary of comics highlight the importance of taking publication format in consideration when defining comics, as well as the political economy implied by specific types of historical publications, in this case the American mainstream comic book. To what extent was National Periodical Publications (later DC) responsible for the rejection of the roles of Kanigher and Novick as artists in their own right by not granting them full authorial credit on the publication itself?"<ref name=WBaFS>{{cite web|url=http://blog.comicsgrid.com/2011/04/whaam-becoming-a-flaming-star/|title=Whaam! Becoming a Flaming Star|access-date=July 28, 2013|date=April 4, 2011|last=Priego|first=Ernesto|work=[[The Comics Grid, Journal of Comics Scholarship]]|volume=1|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002102214/http://blog.comicsgrid.com/2011/04/whaam-becoming-a-flaming-star/|archive-date=October 2, 2013|df=mdy-all}}</ref>}}
Furthermore, Campbell notes that there was a time when comic artists often declined attribution for their work.<ref name=L />

In an account published in 1998, Novick said that he had met Lichtenstein in the army in 1947 and, as his superior officer, had responded to Lichtenstein's tearful complaints about the menial tasks he was assigned by recommending him for a better job.<ref name="Beaty" /> Jean-Paul Gabilliet has questioned this account, saying that Lichtenstein had left the army a year before the time Novick says the incident took place.<ref>{{cite book| last = Gabilliet| first = Jean-Paul| title = Of Comics and Men: A Cultural History of American Comic Books| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=J1t8g_yX1wcC&pg=PA350| year = 2009| publisher = [[University Press of Mississippi]]| isbn = 978-1-60473-267-2| page = 350 }}</ref> Bart Beaty, noting that Lichtenstein had appropriated Novick for works such as ''Whaam!'' and ''[[Okay Hot-Shot, Okay!]]'', says that Novick's story "seems to be an attempt to personally diminish" the more famous artist.<ref name="Beaty">{{cite journal|url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/crv/summary/v034/34.3beaty.html|title=Roy Lichtenstein's Tears: Art vs. Pop in American Culture|access-date=June 30, 2013|volume=34|issue=3|year=2004|last=Beaty|first=Bart|journal=[[Canadian Review of American Studies]]|pages=249–268}}</ref>

In 1966, Lichtenstein moved on from his much-celebrated imagery of the early 1960s, and began his ''Modern Paintings'' series, including over 60 paintings and accompanying drawings. Using his characteristic Ben-Day dots and geometric shapes and lines, he rendered incongruous, challenging images out of familiar architectural structures, patterns borrowed from [[Art Déco]] and other subtly evocative, often sequential, motifs.{{citation needed|date=August 2023}} The ''Modern Sculpture'' series of 1967–8 made reference to motifs from Art Déco architecture.<ref name="moma">[http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=3542 Roy Lichtenstein] Museum of Modern Art, New York.</ref>

=== Later work ===
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 | image1    = Vincent van Gogh - De slaapkamer - Google Art Project.jpg
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In the early 1960s, Lichtenstein reproduced masterpieces by [[Paul Cézanne|Cézanne]], [[Piet Mondrian|Mondrian]] and [[Pablo Picasso|Picasso]] before embarking on the [[Brushstrokes series|''Brushstrokes'' series]] in 1965.<ref name=RLLA37>{{harvnb |Alloway|1983|p=37}}: "Lichtenstein staked out art as a theme in 1962 in terms of reproductions of masterpieces by Cézanne, Mondrian, and Picasso. The theme reappears in another form in the Brushstrokes of 1965–66: no specific artist is identifiable with them, but at the time the paintings were usually interpreted as a putdown of gestural Abstract Expressionism (the disparity between Lichtenstein's neat technique and the hefty swipes of impasted paint is marked)."</ref> He continued to revisit this theme later in his career with works such as ''[[Bedroom at Arles]]'' that derived from [[Vincent van Gogh]]'s ''[[Bedroom in Arles]]''.

In 1970, Lichtenstein was commissioned by the [[Los Angeles County Museum of Art]] (within its Art and Technology program developed between 1967 and 1971) to make a film. With the help of [[Universal Pictures|Universal Film Studios]], the artist conceived of, and produced, ''Three Landscapes'', a film of marine landscapes, directly related to a series of collages with landscape themes he created between 1964 and 1966.<ref>[http://www.march.es/arte/ingles/madrid/exposiciones/lichtenstein/temporal.asp Roy Lichtenstein: Beginning to End, February 2 – May 27, 2007] Fundación Juan March, Madrid.</ref> Although Lichtenstein had planned to produce 15 short films, the three-screen installation&nbsp;– made with New York-based independent filmmaker [[Joel Freedman]]&nbsp;– turned out to be the artist's only venture into the medium.<ref>Richard Kalina (April 12, 2011), [http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/reviews/roy-lichtenstein/ Roy Lichtenstein] ''Art in America''.</ref>

Also in 1970, Lichtenstein purchased a former carriage house in Southampton, Long Island, built a studio on the property, and spent the rest of the 1970s in relative seclusion.<ref name="The Art Behind The Dots">[[Deborah Solomon]] (March 8, 1987), [https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/08/magazine/the-art-behind-the-dots.html The Art Behind The Dots] ''[[New York Times]]''.</ref> In the 1970s and 1980s, his style began to loosen and he expanded on what he had done before. Lichtenstein began a series of ''Mirrors'' paintings in 1969. By 1970, while continuing on the ''Mirrors'' series, he started work on the subject of [[entablature]]s. The ''Entablatures'' consisted of a first series of paintings from 1971 to 1972, followed by a second series in 1974–76, and the publication of a series of relief prints in 1976.<ref name="paulacoopergallery1">[http://www.paulacoopergallery.com/exhibitions/507 Roy Lichtenstein: Entablatures, September 17 – November 12, 2011] Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.</ref> Lichtenstein produced a series of "Artists Studios" which incorporated elements of his previous work. A notable example being ''Artist's Studio, Look Mickey'' (1973, [[Walker Art Center]], [[Minneapolis]]) which incorporates five other previous works, fitted into the scene.<ref name="rlf-chronology" />

During a trip to Los Angeles in 1978, Lichtenstein was fascinated by lawyer Robert Rifkind's collection of [[German Expressionism|German Expressionist]] prints and illustrated books. He began to produce works that borrowed stylistic elements found in Expressionist paintings. ''The White Tree'' (1980) evokes lyric [[Der Blaue Reiter]] landscapes, while ''Dr. Waldmann'' (1980) recalls [[Otto Dix]]'s ''Dr. Mayer-Hermann'' (1926). Small colored-pencil drawings were used as templates for woodcuts, a medium favored by [[Emil Nolde]] and [[Max Pechstein]], as well as Dix and [[Ernst Ludwig Kirchner]].<ref>[http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/roy-lichtenstein--july-01-2013-2 Lichtenstein: Expressionism, July 1 – October 12, 2013] [[Gagosian Gallery]], Paris.</ref> Also in the late 1970s, Lichtenstein's style was replaced with more [[Surrealism|surreal]] works such as ''Pow Wow'' (1979, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, [[Aachen]]). A major series of Surrealist-Pop paintings from 1979 to 1981 is based on Native American themes.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://sam.nmartmuseum.org/view/objects/aslist/People$00403520/0/primaryMakerAlpha-asc?t:state:flow=b225784f-c3a2-448b-a7c7-140f52efdaf6 |title=New Mexico Museum of Art |publisher=Sam.nmartmuseum.org |access-date=July 9, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140325115300/http://sam.nmartmuseum.org/view/objects/aslist/People$00403520/0/primaryMakerAlpha-asc?t:state:flow=b225784f-c3a2-448b-a7c7-140f52efdaf6 |archive-date=March 25, 2014}}</ref><ref>[http://www.tacomaartmuseum.org/page.aspx?hid=374 Roy Lichtenstein: American Indian Encounters, May 13 – September 4, 2006] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111226165855/http://tacomaartmuseum.org/page.aspx?hid=374 |date=December 26, 2011 }} [[Tacoma Art Museum]], Tacoma.</ref> These works range from ''Amerind Figure'' (1981), a stylized life-size sculpture reminiscent of a streamlined [[totem pole]] in black-patinated bronze, to the monumental wool tapestry ''Amerind Landscape'' (1979). The "Indian" works took their themes, like the other parts of the Surrealist series, from contemporary art and other sources, including books on American Indian design from Lichtenstein's small library.<ref>Grace Glueck (December 23, 2005) [https://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/23/arts/design/23lich.html A Pop Artist's Fascination With the First Americans] ''[[New York Times]]''.</ref>

Lichtenstein's ''Still Life'' paintings, sculptures and drawings, which span from 1972 through the early 1980s, cover a variety of motifs and themes, including the most traditional such as fruit, flowers, and vases.<ref>[http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/may-08-2010--roy-lichtenstein Roy Lichtenstein: Still Lifes, May 8 – July 30, 2010] [[Gagosian Gallery]], New York.</ref> In 1983 Lichtenstein made two [[Internal resistance to apartheid|anti-apartheid]] posters, simply titled "Against Apartheid".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.imageduplicator.com/main.php?decade=80&year=83&work_id=3700|title = Against Apartheid - Image-Duplicator}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.imageduplicator.com/main.php?decade=80&year=83&work_id=3821|title = Against Apartheid Poster - Image-Duplicator}}</ref> In his ''Reflection'' series, produced between 1988 and 1990, Lichtenstein reused his own motifs from previous works.<ref>[http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5074077 Roy Lichtenstein, ''Reflections on the Prom'' (1990)] [[Christie's]] Post War And Contemporary Art Evening Sale, New York, May 13, 2008.</ref> ''Interiors'' (1991–1992) is a series of works depicting banal domestic environments inspired by furniture ads the artist found in telephone books or on billboards.<ref>[http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lichtenstein-interior-with-waterlilies-t07339 Roy Lichtenstein, ''Interior with Waterlilies'' (1991)] [[Tate Modern]].</ref> Having garnered inspiration from the monochromatic prints of [[Edgar Degas]] featured in a 1994 exhibition at the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] in New York, the motifs of his ''Landscapes in the Chinese Style'' series are formed with simulated Ben-Day dots and block contours, rendered in hard, vivid color, with all traces of the hand removed.<ref>[http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/roy-lichtenstein--november-12-2011 Roy Lichtenstein: Landscapes in the Chinese Style, November 12 – December 22, 2011] [[Gagosian Gallery]], Hong Kong.</ref> The nude is a recurring element in Lichtenstein's work of the 1990s, such as in ''Collage for Nude with Red Shirt'' (1995).

In addition to paintings and sculptures, Lichtenstein also made over 300 prints, mostly in [[screenprinting]].<ref>{{harvnb|Corlett|2002}}</ref>

=== Commissions ===
[[File:BMW Group 5 320i Roy Lichtenstein 1977.jpg|thumb|Group 5 Racing Version of [[BMW 3 Series|BMW 320i]], painted in 1977 by Roy Lichtenstein]]
[[File:Tel Aviv 07-12 (7535242642).jpg|thumb|In 1989, Lichtenstein created a giant two-panel mural especially for the [[Tel Aviv Museum of Art]]]]
In 1969, Lichtenstein was commissioned by [[Gunter Sachs]] to create ''Composition'' and ''Leda and the Swan'', for the collector's Pop Art bedroom suite at the [[Badrutt's Palace Hotel|Palace Hotel]] in [[St. Moritz]]. In the late 1970s and during the 1980s, Lichtenstein received major commissions for works in public places: the sculptures ''[[Lamp (sculpture)|Lamp]]'' (1978) in St. Mary's, [[Georgia (U.S.)|Georgia]]; ''[[Mermaid (Roy Lichtenstein)|Mermaid]]'' (1979) in Miami Beach; the 26 feet tall ''[[Brushstrokes in Flight]]'' (1984, moved in 1998) at [[John Glenn Columbus International Airport]]; the five-storey high ''[[Mural with Blue Brushstroke]]'' (1984–85) at the [[AXA Center|Equitable Center]], New York; and ''[[El Cap de Barcelona]]'' (1992) in Barcelona.<ref name="moma" /> In 1994, Lichtenstein created the 53-foot-long, enamel-on-metal ''[[Times Square Mural]]'' in [[Times Square – 42nd Street (New York City Subway)|Times Square subway station]].<ref>{{cite news|first=Ken |last=Johnson |date=October 11, 2002|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/11/arts/art-in-review-roy-lichtenstein-times-square-mural.html |title=Roy Lichtenstein – 'Times Square Mural'|work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> In 1977, he was commissioned by [[BMW]] to paint a Group 5 Racing Version of the [[BMW 3 Series (E21)|BMW 320i]] for the third installment in the [[BMW Art Car Project]]. The [[DreamWorks Records]] logo was his last completed project.<ref name="rlf-chronology" /> "I'm not in the business of doing anything like that (a corporate logo) and don't intend to do it again," allows Lichtenstein. "But I know [[Mo Ostin]] and [[David Geffen]] and it seemed interesting."<ref>{{cite web|title=Artist Roy Lichtenstein Designs Logo For DreamWorks Records|url=http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Artist+Roy+Lichtenstein+Designs+Logo+For+DreamWorks+Records-a018598870|access-date=May 28, 2012|author=[[DreamWorks Records]]|date=August 20, 1996}}</ref>

=== Recognition ===
*1977 Skowhegan Medal for Painting, Skowhegan School, Skowhegan, [[Maine]].
*1979 [[American Academy of Arts and Letters]], New York.
*1989 [[American Academy in Rome]], Rome, Italy. Artist in residence.
*1991 Creative Arts Award in Painting, [[Brandeis University]], Waltham, [[Massachusetts]].
*1993 Amici de Barcelona, from Mayor [[Pasqual Maragall]], L'Alcalde de Barcelona.
*1995 [[Kyoto Prize]], Inamori Foundation, [[Kyoto]], Japan.
*1995 National Medal of the Arts, Washington D.C.

Lichtenstein received numerous Honorary Doctorate degrees from, among others, the [[George Washington University]] (1996), [[Bard College]], [[Royal College of Art]] (1993), [[Ohio State University]] (1987), [[Southampton College]] (1980), and the [[California Institute of the Arts]] (1977). He also served on the board of the [[Brooklyn Academy of Music]].<ref name="The Art Behind The Dots" />

In 2023, five of Lichtenstein's paintings will be featured on [[USPS]] [[Forever stamps]]: ''Standing Explosion (Red)'', ''Modern Painting I'', ''Still Life with Crystal Bowl'', ''Still Life with Goldfish'', and ''Portrait of a Woman''. Derry Noyes served as the stamp series' art director and designer.<ref>{{Cite news |date=October 24, 2022 |title=U.S. Postal Service Reveals Stamps for 2023 |publisher=[[United States Postal Service]] |url=https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2022/1024-usps-reveals-stamps-for-2023.htm |access-date=October 26, 2022}}</ref>