Celebrating a master’s visual power and intellectual rigor

Tate Modern is set to host a massive show of artworks by one of the great American artists of the twentieth century. ‘Lichtenstein: A Retrospective is probably the first full-scale retrospective of this important artist in over twenty years.

Co-organized by The Art Institute of Chicago and Tate Modern, this momentous show brings together 125 of his most definitive paintings and sculptures and will reassess his enduring legacy. An accompanying note elaborates: “Roy Lichtenstein is renowned for his works based on comic strips and advertising imagery, colored with his signature hand-painted Benday dots. The exhibition showcases such key paintings as ‘Look Mickey’ (1961) lent from the National Gallery Art, Washington and his monumental ‘Artist’s Studio’ series of 1973–74.”

Other noteworthy highlights of the showcase include ‘Whaam!’ in 1963 - a signature work in Tate’s collection – and ‘Drowning Girl’ from 1963 on loan from the Museum of Modern Art, New York. The artist’s rich and expansive practice will be represented by a wide range of materials, including paintings on Rowlux and steel, as well sculptures in ceramic and brass and a selection of previously unseen drawings, collages and works of paper.

The American Pop artist, lithographer and sculptor studied at the Art Students League 1939, and at Ohio State College (1940-43). He returned to Ohio State College (1946-49), and taught there until 1951. His first one-man exhibit was at the Carlebach Gallery, New York in 1951. Initially, he painted in a non-figurative and Abstract Expressionist style, but gradually began to incorporate loosely handled cartoon images, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck etc., in his paintings.

Lichtenstein made a breakthrough into his characteristic work in 1961; he painted pictures based on comic strip images, advertising imagery and overt adaptations of works of art by others, followed by classical ruins, paintings of canvas backs or stretchers etc. He made land, sea, sky and moonscapes in 1964, sometimes in relief and incorporating plastics and enameled metal. His later body of work included some sculptures, mostly in polished brass, based on Art-Deco forms of the 1930s.

The exhibition is a tribute to his extraordinary oeuvre, celebrating the visual power and intellectual rigor of Roy Lichtenstein’s work.