I recognize Roy Lichtenstein as a very iconic and influential artist known predominantly for his Pop Art. The stylistic way in way in which he painted the women in his diptychs were particularly familiar as I saw them appropriated into a variety of media. Though Andy Warhol is well known for his contributions to the movement, Lichtenstein’s work stood out to me more due to his usage of humans/faces in his work. I also thought the nature of his work was interesting in how it combined the mechanics of reproduction with hand-drawn techniques. He was also quite a controversial figure who is often used in discussions about copying and plagiarism due to methods he used in his art. I once did a presentation on Ethics & Plagiarism in 12th grade and found out that Irk Novick who originally made the comic strip “Whaam!”, one of Lichtenstein’s more famous works eventually called him out because it was unjust of him to earn notiriety and money for works he copied. It reminded me about the differentiation we make between art and artist. More than anything, I think he works more like an archive of sorts because of how he documented the culture of comic books and iconic figures at the time, albeit in a parodied and playful manner as he recreated things the way he saw them. In the end he strikes me as someone I don’t necessarily admire, technique or concept wise but I can definitely acknowledge him as being a memorable and impactful artist. “I take a cliché and try to organize its forms to make it monumental. The difference is often not great, but it is crucial,” he once said of his work.”

In The Car (c. 1963)

Sources:

http://www.artnet.com/artists/roy-lichtenstein/

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/roy-lichtenstein-1508