Roy Lichtenstein

He was married to Isabel Wilson form 1949-58. They both had two sons together, David Hoyt Lichtenstein who is a songwriter now and Mitchell Lichtenstein who is a famous actor, writer, producer and director.

Lichtenstein was married to his second wife, Dorothy Herzka’ from 1968 until his death and the couple used to live in a house near the beach in Southampton, New York. He died of pneumonia in 1997 at the New York University Medical Center.

Roy Lichtenstein was born on October 27, 1923 in New York City to Milton Lichtenstein and Beatrice Werner Lichtenstein. His father was a successful real estate developer. He grew up on the Upper West Side, owing to his affluent background.

He went to New York’s Franklin School for Boys and completed his secondary education there. It was during this time that he increasingly became interested in art, design and music, especially jazz.

While at school he took classes at the Art Students League, studying with American realist painter Reginald Marsh in 1940. He got admission in The Ohio State University but his studies were interrupted by WW II.

Lichtenstein left the opportunity to pursue studio courses and a degree in fine arts to serve his country in WW II in 1943. He was trained in programs for languages, engineering, and pilot training but he served as an orderly and a draftsman.

In 1946, he returned back to studies in Ohio under the supervision of one of his teachers, Hoyt L. Sherman. He soon received a Master of Fine Arts degree and became an art instructor at the university.

He had his first solo exhibition at the Carlebach Gallery, New York in 1951. He was slowly gaining popularity in the circuit and moved to Cleveland in the same year where he undertook variety of jobs like working as a draftsman.

In 1958, Lichtenstein started teaching at the State University of New York at Oswego, after oscillating between cubism and Expressionism and finally adopting the Abstract Expressionism style. He started amalgamating cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse into his abstract art.

After he took up role of a teacher at Rutgers University, from 1961-1964, Lichtenstein profusely painted pop paintings, inculcating cartoon characters and household objects into it. His first large-scale work ‘Look Mickey’ was also painted in this period.

During early 1960s, Lichtenstein produced works, like ‘Look Mickey (1961)’, ‘Whaam! (1963)’ and ‘Drowning Girl (1963)’, that made him into an international phenomenon. This was the time when he was experimenting with the incorporation of cartoon characters into his abstract paintings.