Lichtenstein an American artist Roy Lichtenstein was born in New York City on October 27, 1923, and grew up on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. In the 1960s, Lichtenstein became a leading figure of the new art movement, alongside Andy Warhol. Inspired by advertisements and comic strips, Lichtenstein’s bright, graphic images parodied popular culture. He died in New York City on September 29, 1997.
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During the 1950s American painting had been dominated by a movement called 'abstract expressionism' (Jackson Pollock and willem de kooning would be examples of abstract expressionist painters).
abstract expressionism had followed the philosophical movement existentialism in insisting that life was tragic but mute. you cannot tell what Pollock’s or de kooning's pictures are 'saying' because life is too complex and overwhelmingly sad to be talked about at all. with an abstract expressionist painting you are intended to just stand in front of the canvas and allow its raw emotion to flood you with wordless misery.
Roy Lichtenstein directly attacked the idea that painting is silent by putting speech bubbles in his works. in 'drowning girl' the painting talks to you directly (or rather a character in it does). the painting tells a story, and in fact the story the painting tells is incomplete in a way that makes you want to know more
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The abstract impressionists had insisted that painting was too serious to be spoken about. Lichtenstein actually makes the painting talk. What is more Lichtenstein makes the painting talk in an almost comical way (which made it difficult for the abstract impressionists to simply dismiss it as trivial).
the pop art movement in general (Warhol, Lichtenstein, claes oldenburg, peter Blake, Richard Hamilton) attacked abstract expressionism's chronic pomposity with a sense of humour. Pop painters took art out of the hands of dealers, educators, academicians, and tenured professors - and gave it back into the hands of ordinary people
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