Roy Lichtenstein

A leading figure in the American Pop Art movement, Roy Lichtenstein grounded his innovative career in imitation and parody. His earlier influences included comic strips and advertisements, and were later extended to everyday objects, art styles, and art history itself. He sought to replicate the artificial and industrial qualities of print on a canvas, and achieved this by meticulously rendering flat, single-colour ben-day dots by hand. The following three prints are currently on view at our Maddox Street gallery as part of our group selling Summer Show and of course available to buy on our website.

These two prints, shown above, are from ‘La Nouvelle Chute de l'Amérique’ (The New Fall of America), a portfolio of ten colour etchings that illustrate selected poems of Allen Ginsburg. The series is titled after Ginsberg’s poetry collection ‘The Fall of America: Poems of These States’. Both the illustrations and the poems reference cultural critiques of modern America. Themes explored by Ginsberg, such as warfare, industrialisation and spirituality, are presented with bluntness and humour through Lichtenstein’s simplified, cartoonlike technique.

Lichtenstein’s ‘Modern Head’ series was greatly inspired by Cubism as well as the abstract heads painted by the Russian Expressionist, Alexej von Jawlensky. The print ‘Modern Head #4’ retains the architectural quality of the sculptures Lichtenstein made of the same subject.

Regarding his ‘Modern Head’ series, Lichtenstein said that his aim was ‘to make a man look like a machine. It’s the machine quality of the twenties and thirties that interests me. The Art Moderne idea of making a head into something that looks as if it’s been made by an engineering draftsman deals with industrialisation and manufacturing, which is what my painting has dealt with since 61 or so’.

View our available Roy Lichtenstein artworks online now or contact our specialists if you are looking for a specific title.

Shapero Modern specialises in Modern & Contemporary prints, multiples and works on paper, with a particular focus on American 20th-century art all of which are available to buy from our website as well as our gallery on Maddox Street in Mayfair.

The gallery runs a programme of selling exhibitions from both primary and secondary market artists, with six exhibitions per year, including collaborations with contemporary living artists as well as masters of 20th-century post-war editions including Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, David Hockney, Claes Oldenburg, Alex Katz, Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró.

Shapero Modern exhibits at major international Art Fairs worldwide, including TEFAF Maastricht, Frieze Masters, Masterpiece London, Art Miami, the IFPDA Fine Art Print Fair and the London Original Print Fair at Somerset House. Meantime, Tabitha and her team are on hand at Shapero Modern’s Mayfair gallery in the heart of London to advise on all aspects of the art market and collecting.