Smile Girl

Roy Lichtenstein was born in New York in 1927. He is one of the most representative exponents of Pop Art and one of the most famous artists of the second half of the 20th century. He approached art as an adolescent. He studied at the same time at the Art Students League in New York and the Ohio State University in Columbus. He interrupted his studies in 1943 when he was sent to Europe because of World War II. He returned to Ohio in 1946 where he continued his studies and graduated; he majored in Fine Arts in 1949. 1951 was the year of his first exposition: he exhibited in New York at the Carlebach Gallery, where he presented painted works and assemblages of objects and various materials. In 1956, his works began to approach Pop Art and Abstract Expressionism. The public's favourite characters such as Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny began to appear in his works. His art approaches the popular world and in particular comics. His technique involves superimposing a metal mesh on the canvas, thus alluding to the dotted language of comics. His innovation is to convey a topical and important message in a simple, symbolic way. Over the years he was called upon to participate in several exhibitions, including the 1964 World's Fair for which he was commissioned to paint a mural for the New York Pavilion. Between the 1970s and 1980s he devoted himself to the creation of still lifes, and drew close to Futurism, Russian Constructivism, Surrealism and German Expressionism. Lichtenstein went down in history as the artist who succeeded in bringing pictorial art closer to the commercial world and to comics. He died in 1997 in New York of pneumonia.