Deanna & Julie discuss Roy Lichtenstein. Who was he? What were his paintings like? Why should we study him?
Join us as we chat about Lichtenstein’s Pop Art and the fine line between a copycat and a unique original piece of art.
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Roy Lichtenstein Discussion Topics
Who was Roy Lichtenstein?
- Lichtenstein first became interested in art and design as a hobby, through school
- Jazz fan
- Served in the army 3 years
- Married twice- 2 children from 1st marriage
- Easy going, charming personality
- Earned an Undergraduate and Masters of Fine Arts from Ohio State University
What were his paintings like?
- Pop Art
- Enlarged Benday Dots
- Frequently remakes of comics or famous works of art
Why study Lichtenstein?
- To have an opportunity to discuss, “What is unique and original art?”
- Some kids will be more drawn to this style
- Experience- Elevating the common to Art
- Color Theory- The effects of contrasting colors and context of color
- Potential subject integrations:
- Science: paint viscosity, how the eye sees color
- Language arts: onamonapia
Quotes We Quoted
“A minor purpose of my war paintings is to put military aggressiveness in an absurd light,” -Roy Lichtenstein
“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.” -Roy Lichtenstein
“I know something that a lot of artists know but few will admit to, and that is: Nothing is completely original. All creative work builds on what came before. Every new idea is just a remix or mash up of one or two pervious ideas” -Austin Kleon
“Good artists copy. Great artists steal.” – Picasso
Works We Mention by Lichtenstein
The best place to see Roy Lichtenstein’s work is at his own website. The art work images are in the “image duplicator” portion of his website.
- Series of brushstroke paintings and sculptures
- Girl with Tear I
- Haystack series (similar to Monet’s haystacks)
- Water Lilies (similar to Monet’s Water Lilies)
- Bedroom at Arles (similar to Van Gogh’s Bedroom at Arles)
- Whamm!
- Ridge Light Ranch line drawing of Whamm!
- Oooh… Alright…
Things we mention
- Austin Kleon’s book, Steal Like An Artist, and Ted Talk
- Previous Lichtenstein blog post
- Painting Primary Colors like Roy Lichtenstein Lesson plan
- Copyright and the Art Teacher Blog Post: