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Estimate: $ 8,000 - $ 12,000
ROY LICHTENSTEIN Storming the Castle.
Brush and ink and watercolor on light tan wove paper, circa 1950. 300x450 mm; 11 3/4x17 3/4 inches. Signed in ink, lower left recto.
Acquired directly from the artist; thence by descent to the current owner; private collection, New York.
This work will appear in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné in preparation by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation.
Printed images have served as inspiration for Lichtenstein (1923-1997) throughout his career. While he is known primarily for his iconic Pop Art images which were based on comic strips and advertisements, various other forms of printed representations informed his early career. One of these inspirations is believed to be a book on the Bayeux Tapestry, which led to the series (and the first continuous theme in Lichtenstein's career) of medieval knights and castles, rendered in small, intimate compositions with a sense of humor and irony. He later poked fun at 19th-century American genre painting from history books, depicting cowboys in a Cubist-inspired style. Lichtenstein's penchant for identifying and appropriating base images in American culture and shaping them into fine art presented itself in these early works-a proclivity that would continue as he embraced Pop Art and became one of the most influential artists of the second half of the twentieth century.
