LICHTENSTEIN ROY

In the late 50s and 60s, American painter Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997)became one of the most important exponents of Pop Art - that movementwhich transformed products of mass consumption and the entertainmentindustry into subjects for art. This apotheosis of banal, everyday objectssimultaneously constituted a criticism of the traditional elitistunderstanding of art. Almost alone among artists, Lichtenstein pursued the question of how animage becomes a work of art. Wholly in keeping with the spirit of theClassical Modern, he held that it was not the "rank" of the picture'ssubject that lends the picture its artistic character, but rather theartist's formal treatment of it. To Lichtenstein, however, this positionseemed far too broad to be seriously pursued. Developed in the early 60s, Lichtenstein's grid technique, with itsallusion to the mass-production of graphic art, allowed the painter togive vent to his own artistic scepticism. In the 60s and 70s, Lichtensteinexpanded his formal repertoire of techniques for creating distance andirony by means of an idiosyncratic process of abstraction and especiallyby his use of his numerous art quotations.