Roy Lichtenstein was, in his day, celebrated as one of the darlings of the elite and effete fine art circles for his gigantic “Pop Art” canvases. He was also appreciated by comic book fans for promoting what had been, until then, considered the lowest of the illustrative arts.
But Lichtenstein had a secret, and comic book fans knew it. He was, as is known in the comics biz, a hack, because everything he did was a swipe from actual comic book panels. Some are instantly recognizable characters, but many were taken from romance comic books, with no credit given to the original artist. Quite a few of them were drawn by John Romita, before he went to Marvel Comics and took over The Amazing Spider-Man from Steve Ditko. Go here for more about that. Click the picture of the John Romita comic book cover to enlarge. This weekend, my best buddy D.F. Rogers will be seeing John Romita Sr. at the New York Comic Con. I wish I could go with him, but I have to pick up my number for the Boston Marathon.
Back in late 2006, Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam featured an art gallery show called Deconstructing Lichtenstein, assembled by David Barsalou. One of the first times Barsalou exhibited the products of his research was in 2002, at the Arno Maris Gallery at my alma mater, Westfield State College. I should point out that Arno Maris knew the artwork of John Romita, because I was the one who showed it to him. In 2002 I donated $500 to the college, specifying that it was for the Arno Maris gallery. I hope my money helped make the Deconstructing Lichtenstein exhibit possible. Go to the link in this paragraph and check out the many examples of original source material that were “borrowed” by Lichtenstein. Here’s Alex Beam’s article.
ALEX BEAM
Lichtenstein: creator or copycat?
By Alex Beam, Globe Columnist | October 18, 2006
Art teacher David Barsalou has an interesting avocation. He has found and catalog ed almost every comic book panel later blown up and sold for megabucks by 1960s Op Art icon Roy Lichtenstein. So far, Barsalou has about 140. You will see a sample on this page, or go to his website, Deconstructing Roy Lichtenstein.
Color me naive, but I never thought Lichtenstein’s work was a direct copy of scenes from comic books. I assumed that he stylized certain scenes suggested by the comic vernacular of the 1950s and 1960s. “He tried to make it seem as though he was making major compositional changes in his work, but he wasn’t,” says Barsalou, who teaches at the High School of Commerce in Springfield. “The critics are of one mind that he made major changes, but if you look at the work , he copied them almost verbatim. Only a few were original.”
Continue reading Swipe-Meister Lichtenstein
