Roy Lichtenstein

Prices soar for works by the big names of twentieth century American art. In 2013 Andy WARHOL was confirmed as the planet’s most profitable artist and his disciple Roy LICHTENSTEIN followed the movement with his best-ever annual auction total.

Half a century after their creation, the supraliminal creations of Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper JOHNS and Robert RAUSCHENBERG are considered the ‘classics’ of the second half of the twentieth century and fetch millions of dollars at auctions. However, when they were created these works were aimed at a more ‘general public’. As a ‘movement’, Pop Art both reflected and exploited the media and its productions were highly distinctive. Their artworks developed as extensions of modern icons. Some artists appropriated the symbols of the America they lived in, while others created art from consumer products to deliver messages to the masses. Thanks to screen-printing, the cult images they created were reproduced in large series. From this point of view, Pop art was really intended to be consumed by a broad range of the population rather than by an elite of wealthy collectors. However today, the prices of these works are well beyond the reach of most people.

The Pope of Pop, Andy Warhol, is today the world’s most profitable artist on the auction market: in 2013 his works generated no less than 40 results above the million-dollar line, including a new record of $94 million (more than €70 million and just $1 million short of Pablo Picasso’s record) for a work entitled Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster) at Sotheby’s New York sale on 13 November 2013. Roy Lichtenstein has not yet reached these summits and his best result in 2013 was $50 million (€38.5 million); but his auction record has climbed every year in the last four years as wealthy buyers have competed for his historical works from the 1960s and 70s. These works represent a broad range of subjects and styles because, at the time, Lichtenstein was very much toying with the history of painting. Indeed, although Lichtenstein was at the forefront of the Pop movement in the 1960s, he was also one of the first “post-modern” artists via his re-appropriation of the figureheads of art history. Almost as well known as his pixelated comic-book scenes, his still lifes, landscapes and portraits inspired by the Modern greats (Matisse, Picasso, Léger, etc.) are all posting increasingly lucrative auction results.

More expensive than Claude Monet

In terms of value, Lichtenstein’s works were already well into seven figures by the late 80s; but his prices accelerated substantially in the 2000s crossing the $5m threshold in 2002 then $10m in 2005 and then $40m in 2012 … this spectacular accretion brought Lichtenstein’s works into line with the art market’s leading lights, with some of his paintings worth as much as a Picasso or a Monet. The $40 million paid in 2012 for his Sleeping girl (from his sexy comic books series) put Lichtenstein ahead of the Impressionist Claude Monet in the ranking of best auction results in 2012. In fact, Sleeping Girl fetched more than a painting (Nymphéas, dated 1905) from one of the most series famous in art history (Claude Monet’s Water Lilies) which fetched $39 million on 5 November 2012 at Christie’s NY. This price comparison clearly reflects a rejuvenation of the art market: after all, a master is a master whether Impressionist or Pop. Buyers clearly have no difficulty attributing the same monetary values to Post-War and Contemporary artists as they do to Modern artists. Another contributing factor to the $40 million result is art market globalisation: for Sleeping girl bidders were phoning in from China, the United States, Latin America and Europe, all competing to acquire the new grail: one of the most expensive works of Pop Art. Remember that just six months earlier, Christie’s NY had sold Lichtenstein’s I Can See the Whole Room!… and There’s Nobody in it sold for $38.5 million. The acquisitive battle continued through 2013, by the end of which Lichtenstein had become the 8th best-selling artist in the world with an annual auction total of $140.5 million.

2013: a record year

Estimated at over $30 million, Lichtenstein’s version of a woman wearing a Picassoan – a portrait of Dora Maar – fetched $50 million (€38.5 million ) on 15 May 2013 at Christie’s New York, one of the best results in auction history, setting yet another new record for the artist, no less than $10m higher than the price paid for Sleeping Girl on 9 May 2012 (Sotheby’s New York). The large and well-dated painting (127 x 101.6 cm, 1963) Woman with Flowered Hat was submitted to auction with perfect timing, simultaneous to a major Lichtenstein retrospective at London’s Tate Modern. Lichtenstein was 38 when he painted this reinterpretation of Picasso’s masterpiece through the prism of Pop culture. Beyond the comic aspect of the revisited face, there is an underlying respect for the Modern master as Lichtenstein only parodied those he admired. Galvanized by the new record just recorded, buyers at the Christie’s sale on 15 May last year bid exuberantly for lot 49, a later work by Lichtenstein (1994), entitled Nude with Yellow Flower. Although not considered a historical work, the canvas fetched $5m over its high estimate when the hammer fell at $21 million (more than €16m)! In fact, the price index for his recent works has recently been approaching that of his ‘historical’ pieces, a trend that was unthinkable only a short time back. In the last two years, three of his works from the 1990s have fetched over $20 million at auctions. In 2013, Lichtenstein generated his best-ever annual auction total with 20 results above the million-dollar line. His price index has increased 152% over the decade, tracking Andy Warhol’s index with a two-year lag. If New York’s high-end market stays on the same path, Lichtenstein could go even higher.

Half of his works are affordable

A Lichtenstein for under 5,000 euros? Yes… it is possible. In fact half of his auction lots sell below this level. Don’t forget, as of the late 1940s, he also did lots of engravings, and particularly in the late 60s in the form of Monet-style Cathedrals and Haystacks. Almost every year he produced a new series, seeking technical innovations with reputable workshops. He used lots of different materials (paper, plastic sheets, metal, etc) and explored various techniques, sometimes on the same sheet (serigraphy, lithography, etchings, woodcuts, etc.). The best prints easily fetch over €10,000 if they are from an edition of less than 100 and signed. The works offered below €5,000 works are often signed screen-printed posters. For assiduous collectors, it is probably more interesting to obtain prints from numbered series (editions of 250 or more) which occasionally turn up at auctions. To catch these gems you need eyes everywhere as they pop up all over the world including in Seoul, London, Tokyo, Paris, Berlin, Chicago and New York … Of course, these multiple works are also following the general inflation affecting Roy Lichtenstein’s work. On 30 October 2013 at Christie’s New York, a rare 1994 lithograph from an edition of 10 copies – Nude with Blue Hair, State I, from Nudes Series – fetched a record price of $265,000 (over €192,000).