When we think My Pop Art, we think of a unique website that offers a myriad of gift-giving possibilities. And when we think Pop Art, we tend to think of Andy Warhol, soup cans and Marilyn Monroe. And while Warhol figures predominantly in the Pop Art scene, there are scores of other artists who have paved the way in this arena as well.

So before you purchase your first piece of My Pop Art, its fun to explore the history of other well-known and recognized pop artists. That way, when you look at your artwork, you see history as well.

Let’s look at Roy Lichenstein, a fantastic trailblazer who produced scores of Pop Art masterpieces:

He was born in New York City in October 1923. His parents were middle-class and he described himself as having had a quiet and uneventful childhood. Though art was not taught as part of the curriculum at his high school, in his junior year he started to draw and paint as a hobby. His first subjects were jazz musicians (the product of a youthful enthusiasm for their music), and his work was affected by Picasso’s Blue and Rose Period paintings, which he knew from reproductions.

After years of schooling and advancement in his artistry:

In 1960 Lichtenstein was appointed Assistant Professor at Douglas College at Rutgers University of New Jersey, which put him within striking distance of New York. He attended a number of early ‘Happenings’, but did not participate in them actively. These contacts revived his interest in Pop imagery, and a more immediate stimulus was provided by a challenge from one of his sons, who pointed to a Mickey Mouse comic book and said; ‘I bet you can’t paint as good as that.’ In 1961 Lichtenstein produced about six paintings showing characters from comic-strip frames, with only minor changes of colour and form from the original source material. It was at this time that he first made use of devices which were to become signatures in his work – Ben-Day dots, lettering and speech balloons.

Lichtenstein took in his comic-strip paintings unannounced to the new Leo Castelli Gallery, and was almost immediately accepted for exhibition there, in preference to Andy Warhol, who had started doing similar work. His first one-man show with Castelli in 1962 launched him on a career which was thereafter uniformly successful. In 1963 he moved from New Jersey to New York, having taken leave of absence from his job at Rutgers; in 1964 he resigned from teaching altogether. In 1966 he showed at the Venice Biennale, and in 1969 he was given a retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum, which later toured America. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1970, and then moved to Southampton, Long Island, thus following a pattern set by many successful American artists.

So when you buy your next piece from My Pop Art, remember, Pop Art has a rich history…beyond Andy Warhol! And when you partake in ordering a piece, you become part of the rich heritage that is Pop Art.