Lichtenstein Posters

A survey of the poster as a working medium for Roy Lichtenstein, tracing how the same benday-dot vocabulary that defined his paintings moved into printed ephemera for exhibitions, films, and public causes.

The book gathers 68 full-color posters spanning Lichtenstein's career, opening with the poster he designed for his first exhibition at Leo Castelli Gallery in 1962 and closing with the last one he completed, the year of his death. A further section draws on a private collection of ephemera, reproducing posters and flyers produced worldwide using Lichtenstein's motifs for music and film festivals, theater, museums, and public-service messages. Jürgen Döring, curator of the exhibition the book accompanied, contributes an essay tracing Lichtenstein's movement between low and high culture, alongside an illustrated biography.

Originally published by Prestel for an exhibition at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg in 2008-2009, Lichtenstein Posters sits alongside the artist's paintings and sculpture as evidence of how thoroughly Pop art's commercial vocabulary ran through his practice, from gallery announcements to mass-produced flyers.