Roy Lichtenstein
American, born 1923
Brushstroke with Spatter
1966
Oil and magna on canvas
172.7 x 203.2 cm
Barbara Neff Smith and Solomon Byron Smith Purchase Fund, 1966.3
© Roy Lichtenstein

This painting looks as if a frame from the comics has been magnified. The artist is very interested in commercial art, or art that uses mechanical printing processes and is seen everywhere—in comic books and magazine ads, on billboards and trucks—rather than in museums and galleries. 

Lichtenstein’s work of the 1960s and 1970s is often called “Pop Art” because he chose popular images for his subjects, rather than traditional fine-art subjects like landscapes and still lifes. But what is this painting about?