Finally, Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) landed in Europe, from the Washington National Gallery, through the Tate Gallery in London, where visitors will know his work until July 27, 2013, when the showcase will be taken to the Centre Pompidou in Paris, one of the most estimulating museums all over Europe. Fresh air for the museums season 2013, year in wich -in spite of the economic crisis- art fans will have even difficulties to choose in an offer, certainly magnificent.
A regular American guy from NYC who suddenly decided one day in 1961 to exhibit a painting called “Look, Mickey”, apparently nothing special if it wasn´t for the fact of introducing popular culture in museum walls. “Look, Mickey” meant the beginning of a new era in art, when cinema, TV, publicity or just everyday´s objects could reach the leit motif of a masterwork perfectly understood by the masses, maybe because they felt some kind of representation of their common lifes.
Anyhow, the point is that Lichtenstein began to attract attention and also cruel critics from some of the great masters of American abstract expressionism, like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, who definitely estated that Lichtenstein´s works were no art and didn´t have anything to do with art.
No doubt, “Look, Mickey” was a shocking break event for History of Art, not for its artistic value but for the flow of art to arrive in the coming years by Lichtenstein but also by the iconic guru of Pop Art, Andy Warhol, who knew how to engage with other contracultural trends like upgrading 60′s rock and roll thanks to his collaboration with bands from New York City like Velvet Underground, for whom he made the famous banana cover for their first record.
Lichtenstien´s artistic obsessions came over with comic strip as a subject matter, with beautiful girls similing, crying and kissing, all shaken with dots to compose the figures. No more lines, no more traces, just dots, a new style that have influenced numerous artists all over the world in the last 40 years, like the Japanese painter Yayoi Kusama, who has even developed fashion lines for Louis Vuitton, always based on the power and simplicity of dots.
The retrospective comes from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, where thousends of visitors enjoyed the 130 paintings, sculptures and drawings last year to arrive now in Europe for the 1st time to celebrate the 90th aniversary of Roy Lichtenstein, all thanks to the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, brilliantly presided by his widow, Mrs. Dorothy Lichtenstein. Thanks for all and happy birthday.
By the way, did you know that it is estimated to exist around 4,500 works by Lichtenstein? Are you one of the silent lucky owners?