Roy liechtenstein small biography of benjamin

American pop artist (1923–1997)

Roy Fox Lichtenstein (; October 27, 1923 – September 29, 1997) was an American pop artist. He rose to prominence in the 1960s through pieces which were inspired by popular advertising and the comic book style. Much of his work explores the relationship between fine art, advertising, and consumerism.

Whaam!, Drowning Girl, and Look Mickey proved to be Lichtenstein's most influential works. His most expensive piece is Masterpiece, which was sold for $165 million in 2017.

Lichtenstein's paintings were exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City, which represented him from 1961 onwards. His artwork was considered to be "disruptive". Lichtenstein described pop art as "not 'American' painting but actually industrial painting".

Early years

Lichtenstein was born on October 27, 1923, into an upper middle classGerman-Jewish family in New York City. His father, Milton, was a real estate broker, and his mother, Beatrice (née Werner), a homemaker. Lichtenstein was raised on New York City's Upper West Side and attended public school until he was 12. Lichtenstein then attended New York's Dwight School, graduating in 1940. He first became interested in art and design as a hobby, through school. Lichtenstein was an avid jazz fan, often attending concerts at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. He frequently drew portraits of the musicians playing their instruments. In 1939, his last year of high school, Lichtenstein enrolled in summer classes at the Art Students League of New York, where he worked under the tutelage of Reginald Marsh.

Career

Lichtenstein then left New York to study at Ohio State University, which offered studio courses and a degree in fine arts. His studies were interrupted by a three-year st

A New Yorker born in 1923, Roy Lichtenstein is well known for his paintings and prints that look like comics. His comic strip cartoons are easily recognized as well as his pop art paintings of everyday objects. To give them the feel of the funny pages, Lichtenstein used small dots using four colors of printers’ inks. Did you know these little dots have a name?

Printers would use small dots of color to print comics in the 1950s, to create shades and colors inexpensively. These were called Ben-Day dots, named for Benjamin Day, a printer in the 1800s.  Lichtenstein used Ben Day dots.

Ready to create some art in the style of Roy Lichtenstein? I made this fun piece using an old vinyl banner. You know that kind that hangs up at school carnivals advertising cola drinks, or promo signs for events? These make fantastic surfaces, and you can paint, cut, color to your heart’s content! So I recycled a local event banner by turning it over and priming the backside with white interior house paint. When dry, I used a black permanent marker to draw out the word POW with exploded lines around it, then got ready to have some fun, Lichtenstein style!

Grab these supplies:

Paint sticks (we love the Kwik Sticks for this!), stacking blocks of different sizes and shapes, bubble wrap, black & white acrylic paint, palette (grab a styrofoam plate)

Mix 2 parts white and one part black paint to mix a grey. Dip the bubble side of the bubble wrap into the paint, wetting the individual bubbles with paint.

Try to keep bubble wrap flat and tap the top to spread the paint evenly across bubble wrap

Lay the bubble wrap paint side down onto the picture, tapping the top to push the paint onto the vinyl canvas. Continue around the canvas, adding the dots that are

Make a spot of black paint on your palette, then dip the raised end of the block into the black paint. Use to make dots (like the benday dots)

Want to find more art by Roy Lichten

Roy Lichtenstein was a prolific artist whose bold approach to composition, color, and shape helped define the Pop Art movement of the late 20th century. In the early 1960s, he developed his signature style by incorporating imagery from comic books and advertisements. His use of striking compositions, saturated colors, and the Ben-Day dot process offered a fresh perspective on visual art, reflecting a world shaped by commercialization, mass production, and pop culture.

A hallmark of Lichtenstein’s work, the Ben-Day dot process is a mechanical printing technique invented in the late 19th century by illustrator Benjamin Henry Day, Jr. It arranges small colored dots - typically cyan, magenta, yellow, and black - to create shading and color variation in images. Lichtenstein transformed this method into a defining visual language, blending the aesthetic of mechanical reproduction with fine art. His reinterpretations often simplified color palettes to vivid primaries, removed extraneous details, and heightened contrasts.

Lichtenstein frequently drew inspiration from comic book imagery, elevating mass-produced visuals into high art. His 1963 lithograph Crak! exemplifies this approach, capturing the energy of comic panels with dynamic composition and bold onomatopoeic text. By isolating and enlarging these elements, he transformed everyday pop culture into a powerful commentary on both art and mass media. As commercial art culture gained prominence, so did Lichtenstein’s imagery.With this newfound recognition, he began challenging traditional artistic ideals by playfully exaggerating elements of modernist painting, incorporating abstraction, expressionism, and landscape composition. His goal was to create artwork that was intentionally clichéd, commercially driven, and easily reproducible. 

His Brushstroke series (1967) reflects this vision, transforming the expressive gesture of a hand-painted brushstroke into a flat, graphi

During the 1960s, many Pop artists turned to commercial printing techniques for their artworks, interested in blurring the lines between fine art and mass production (the most famous example was, of course, Andy Warhol). Lichtenstein made his first Pop Art print in the mid-1960s. He would go on to produce over 350 print editions in a variety of techniques – including screen printing, lithography, woodcuts or a combination of two.

Some of Lichtenstein’s prints reproduce his most popular paintings. Other works only exist as print editions – for example, his jazz-inspired Reverie from 1965, or his tribute to Monet’s Haystacks from 1969. As usual for the print market, Lichtenstein’s prints with a low edition number are rarer and more valuable. Woodblocks from his Pop Art period are especially desirable, however, while prints with mid-to-high edition numbers are popular choices for short-term investments.