Roy Lichtenstein
Landscape 4 from Ten Landscapes
1967

Techniques and strategies of commercial printing are fundamental to the visual language of Roy Lichtenstein's celebrated Pop style. The Benday dots and regularized stripes he used for tone, the clarifying black outlines, the flat areas of bold primary color, and the simplification and schematization of his compositions are all elements embraced by consumer culture to create the inescapable printed imagery aimed at mass audiences.

The subject matter that first brought Lichtenstein's work to public attention was appropriated from comic strips, but his later themes owed their visual syntax to themes from "high" culture, particularly the history of modern art. Illustrated here are examples of his interpretations of German Expressionism and Art Deco, as well as the time-honored motif of landscape in art. In every case, his sense of irony is coupled with a strikingly positive spirit.