Composition I
Composition I
Signed Print
Roy Lichtenstein
£35,000-£50,000Value Indicator
$70,000-$100,000 Value Indicator
$60,000-$90,000 Value Indicator
¥320,000-¥460,000 Value Indicator
€40,000-€60,000 Value Indicator
$340,000-$490,000 Value Indicator
¥6,700,000-¥9,570,000 Value Indicator
$45,000-$60,000 Value Indicator
AAGR (5 years) This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.
There aren't enough data points on this work for a comprehensive result. Please speak to a specialist by making an enquiry.
Medium: Screenprint
Edition size: 50
Year: 1996
Size: H 121cm x W 88cm
Signed: Yes
Format: Signed Print
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Auction Results
| Auction Date | Auction House | Location | Hammer Price | Return to Seller | Buyer Paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2024 | Swann Galleries | United States | |||
| June 2024 | Phillips London | United Kingdom | |||
| April 2024 | Christie's New York | United States | |||
| April 2023 | Christie's New York | United States | |||
| October 2020 | A.N. Abell Auction Company | United States | |||
| June 2020 | Bonhams New York | United States | |||
| May 2018 | Bonhams Los Angeles | United States |
Meaning & Analysis
Roy Lichtenstein was born and raised in New York, and was an essential figure in the development of Pop Art. He came to prominence in the 1960s, creating comic book style artworks using his characteristic Ben Day dots, stripes and primary colours. Printmaking remained an integral part of his practice, starting in the late 1950s and lasting well into the 1990s.
As the son of a gifted piano player, the pop artist grew up surrounded by music. Playing a variety of instruments himself, like the clarinet and the saxophone, he frequently visited jazz clubs and concert halls during his lifetime. Lichtenstein hints at his passion for music already in his early prints of the 1960s, see the sly musical undertones present in his Brushstroke Faces as a striking example. This enduring interest is explicitly manifested in his Composition screenprints dating from the mid 1990s.
Composition I exhibits an array of looping musical notations winding around the canvas.The black and dark red illustrations of notes and curving staves are set against waves of royal blue, pale cyan and bright yellow. Lichtenstein’s signature diagonal lines and dots are situated beneath the vertical format, along the left side of the print. Composition I captures an imaginary music sheet in its entirety, while the two other prints in the Composition series reference Lichtenstein’s Bulls seriesin their intimation of an abstraction process.
Roy Lichtenstein, born in New York, 1923, is a seminal figure in the Pop Art movement, renowned for his comic book and advertisement-inspired artworks. His transformative journey from classical painter to Pop Art pioneer began with his iconic piece, Look Mickey, marking the fusion of painting with pop culture. Lichtenstein’s works, including Whaam!, Drowning Girl, and Crying Girl, blend parody and satire, challenging the boundaries between popular culture and ‘high art’. With over 5,000 pieces to his name, Lichtenstein’s enduring influence resonates in contemporary art, his works celebrated in prestigious institutions worldwide.
