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This little ABC book is so wonderful that adults may have trouble sharing it with the babies, toddlers, and growing children in their midst. Every two-page spread contains an alphabet letter and a painting by Roy Lichtenstein, one of the first and most successful of the pop artists. The 26 letters here were each lifted from one of Lichtenstein's prints, drawings, or paintings, and each has a style and a presence all its own, apart from the art on the facing page. Finally, below each member of the alphabet, in comic-book type, are a few words that begin with that letter and refer to objects or ideas pictured in the art on the opposite page. Lichtenstein, who died in 1997, was a witty and subtly classical artist who combined humor and whimsy in his work with an effortless dignity and a broad knowledge of art history. His comics-derived imagery was so crisp and stylish when he first rose to prominence--so now, as one might have said in the '60s--that viewers were surprised when in the 1980s he began painting monumental images of abstract friezes from ancient temples. This little book is tremendously appealing, showing paintings of water lilies, dogs, a sweet kiss, a "Matisse" still life with goldfish (and a golf ball), a nurse, a cup of coffee, an ice-cream soda, and other recognizable images. Babies and toddlers especially will love to peruse its pages, and art-loving parents everywhere will be enthralled. --Peggy Moorman
Book Description
The Amercian master Roy Lichtenstein appropriated his classic modern high-art style from the pop art of comics. His distinctive look-filled with brillant color, dots, and stripes-is one of the most identifiable in all contemporary art. Here, Lichtenstein's unique style celebrates our beloved ABCs, with results that are surprising, delightful, and amusing. D is for a comically vicious growling Dog. H is a Horse that races by in dizzying dots and stripes. And A is for Art, Lichtenstein's first pop comic masterpiece, Look Mickey, now in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
This mini-retrospective is a must for art lovers, letter lovers, and those just cutting their teeth on the alphabet.
One of the founders of pop art, Roy Lichtenstein is best known for large-scale renditions of comic-stip art and for fusing comic images with "high art" in his appropriations of such artists as Picasso and Mondrian.
