New Yorker Roy Lichtenstein starred throughout the 20th century with a very unique approach to his art which proved very popular at the time and continues to do so today. Lichtenstein himself is currently one of the most reproduced artists in the world, with most of his supporters residing in his native America. The artist played an important role in the rise of American art as something which was leading new ideas when previously it had generally just followed ideas such as French impressionism or the European wide Renaissance. Few countries now produce as many innovative paintings and prints as America who continues to lead modern art ideas. Roy Lichtenstein paintings can now be found in major institutions across America and also a few have made it abroad.
Roy Lichtenstein was a true modern artist and wanted to cover social scenes with in his work, normally concentrating on romantic relationships from a female's point of view and this led to him using speech bubbles as a way of adding communication and content. These speech bubbles were taken from cartoons and therefore sat well with his existing artistic approach. Some of his best known paintings and prints were directly taken from existing cartoons, with the artist just adding his own style to the content to make it more suitable to his followers. One example of this was Whaam which was a direct translation from a comic book panel from in All-American Men of War. Roy Lichtenstein prints are now some of the most frequently ordered reproductions of any artist in the world.
Whaam originally had a pink background which the artist amended to pink but he didn’t make too many other significant changes as he translated Whaam into a two panel painting made from Magna on canvas, with this popular art work coming about in 1963, though it must be said that the style used by Lichtenstein is still very up-to-date today and hasn't aged at all. For those who get the opportunity, it is well worth seeing some of Lichtenstein’s original paintings and prints with your own eyes and most of them are spread across America with some now also displayed in permanent collections with in Europe. Exhibitions of his work are also fairly common so it should be possible with in these continents to access his work. There is also plenty more information available on the artist around the internet which contains to discuss his career and achievements such as through art blogs or wider news sites who have a particular bias towards modern issues and culture. There is also more on Roy Lichtenstein Whaam here as well.
