Mao
1971
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
lithograph in red and black on Arches paper
Dimensions
image: 58.6 x 43 cm (23 1/16 x 16 15/16 in.) sheet: 68.1 x 51.1 cm (26 13/16 x 20 1/8 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Roy and Dorothy Lichtenstein
Accession Number
1996.56.58
Art Historical Context
Roy Lichtenstein's *Mao* (1971) is a bold lithograph in vibrant red and black inks on fine Arches paper, measuring 58.6 x 43 cm. As a key figure in the Pop Art movement of the 1960s and '70s, Lichtenstein everyday images from comics, ads, and mass media into high art using his signature style: thick black outlines, Ben-Day dots, and flattened perspective. This print exemplifies his mastery of lithography, a technique that allowed for precise reproduction of these graphic effects, echoing the mechanical processes of commercial printing and critiquing celebrity culture. Created during a period ...
About the Artist
Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein was born on October 27, 1923, in New York City to Milton Lichtenstein, a real estate broker, and Beatrice Werner Lichtenstein, a homemaker with musical training, in an upper-middle-class German-Jewish family. Growing up on the Upper West Side, he displayed early artistic talent, sketching jazz musicians and visiting museums like the Museum of Modern Art. In 1939, he studied painti...