In the summer of 1961, Lichtenstein embarked on a series of iconic images of women, taken directly from newspaper clippings and the romance comic books prevalent in post-war America. The anonymity of mass-produced, cheap comics helped him capture specific impressions of real life, while maintaining the necessary degree of aesthetic distance afforded by what he understood to be the "high restrictive quality of art". The "Girl" paintings, together with the war images (or "Boy" paintings), established him as the major protagonist of the American Pop Art movement. His amalgamation of text and image, high and low culture, and his strategy to involve appropriated images continues to be a rich source of inspiration for subsequent generations of artists, from Richard Prince, Jeff Koons, and Raymond Pettibon to John Currin and Elizabeth Peyton.
A conversation between Jeff Koons and Dorothy Lichtenstein opens the catalogue. The publication also brings together and exceptional collection of over 130 images of paintings, drawings, sources, and documentary photographs. Included in these images are 22 full-colored plates of the "Girl" paintings, 18 of which are featured in the exhibition. The catalogue closes with a select chronology of Roy Lichtenstein's life, pinpointing important exhibitions and occasions.
An artist's book response to the "Girl" paintings created by Richard Prince is also included as an insert.
