Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The most iconic works of Roy Lichtenstein are widely known, reproduced, copied and even parodied. This book gives consideration to Lichtenstein's work, complemented with photographs of the artist and his seminal exhibitions.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

American painter and sculptor Roy -Lichtenstein is best known as a progenitor of "classic" Pop Art in America, with his meticulously enlarged comic book cells-bowdlerized pastiches of tiny originals he appropriated from anonymous commercial artists. Wry and humorous while free of needless metaphorical weight, they epitomize the populism underpinning Pop and highlight abstract design characteristics hidden within banal source material. Although he has long been the recipient of ample critical attention, this handsome book by Rondeau (curator of contemporary art, Art Inst. of Chicago; Contemporary Collecting: The Donna and Howard Stone Collection) and Wagstaff (chief curator, Tate Modern; Juan Munoz) is the most complete retrospective since the artist's death in 1997. More than 300 plates illustrating the arc of a prolific career are organized thematically rather than chronologically, reflecting a continuum of programmatic consistency throughout four decades of Lichtenstein's oeuvre. Some welcome emphasis is given to his later work, such as landscapes in the Chinese style, and nudes again in the mock-comic mode. Additionally, nine scholarly essays-many byÅRondeau and Wagstaff-focus on more specific aspects within various periods of the artist's life. VERDICT This comprehensive, authoritative survey of a game-changing modernist is best suited to students of the postwar zeitgeist in the United States.-Douglas F. Smith, Berkeley P.L., CA (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Released in conjunction with a retrospective exhibit, this critical survey presents Roy Lichtenstein as an artist who transcended subject matter in order to create a visual world both culturally prescient and deeply engaged with art history. Although widely regarded as a preeminent Pop artist, Lichtenstein's work and thematic concerns have received relatively slight critical attention; the nine essays collected here help remedy the situation, with every writer addressing a different mode or period of the artist's oeuvre. Focusing on seemingly small details, such as the blush of Mickey Mouse or Lichtenstein's engagement with Chinese landscapes, the essays manage without exception to clarify his diverse influences and contextualize him in the 20th century, while still complicating easy perceptions of his relation to politics, mass media, or art itself. This engaging academic attention is paired with generous reproductions of Lichtenstein's most famous works, as well as previously unseen rarities. The cohesive yet varied selection of paintings, sculptures, and drawings smartly echo the critical insights, allowing works such as 1961's iconic "Look Mickey" to appear as fresh and as radical today as they were 50 years ago. An artist driven by the image, enraptured by the interaction of objects in visual space, Lichtenstein is presented anew through this essential survey, and his work given its rightful place at the center of modern art. Illus. & photos. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

CHOICE Review

A versatile artist adept in many mediums, Roy Lichtenstein--one of the founders of the Pop Art movement in the US--is perhaps best known for his Ben Day dot paintings, with subjects culled from sources including art history, the comics, and everyday objects and activities, among others. Indeed, his legacy lies in his uncanny ability to conflate and resolve the uneasy tensions between commercial and fine art. His career and contributions to art are being celebrated in a major retrospective--the first since his death in 1997--organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and Tate Modern, London. This sumptuous exhibition catalogue addresses the broad scope of Lichtenstein's career and art with ten well-researched, well-documented essays that examine everything from the development of his hallmark Ben Day dot painting method to his late works, in which he explored his abiding fascination with Chinese landscape painting and that hallmark of Western art, the nude. The bulk of the catalogue features beautiful color plates of the exhibition's 160-plus works, usefully arranged thematically and then chronologically within each section. An extensive illustrated chronology of the artist's life and career follows the plates. This indispensable resource will appeal to a wide range of readers. Summing Up: Essential. Lower-level undergraduates through professionals/practitioners; general readers. D. E. Gliem Eckerd College