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ROY LICHTENSTEIN:
Biography
Roy Fox Lichtenstein is born on October 27, 1923. His father is a realestate
broker for Garage Realty near 4oth street and Broadway in Manhattan and his
mother is a homemaker. The family resides on the Upper West Side and
Lichtenstein grows up on West 86th Street with his sister, Renée, four years his
junior. Lichtenstein attends elementary school at P.S. 9 located nearby on West
84th Street and West End Avenue. Drawing, playing marbles and roller-skating
in Strauss and Riverside Park are among his favorite pastimes. Science becomes
a lifelong intrigue and his mother often takes him to the Museum of Natural
History, which is close by his apartment. During his youth, Lichtenstein develops
a strong interest in drawing and spends time designing and building model
airplanes. His favorite radio shows include Flash Gordon and Mandrake the
Magician.
At the age of 13, Lichtenstein is enrolled at Franklin School for Boys, a private
school close to home. There his studies focus on the natural sciences. No art
classes are off e red at Franklin so Lichtenstein takes Saturday morning
watercolor classes at Parsons School of Design in the city. At Parsons, he paints
still lifes and flower arrangements. By high school, Lichtenstein develops a
passion for jazz music and forms a small band with several other students where
he plays clarinet, piano and flute. His student works include renderings of
generic jazz musicians inspired by those he has heard play at the infamous clubs
around East 52nd Street. George Gershwin’s musical Porgy & Bess inspires
another series of drawings, which he later destroys.
In 1940, Lichtenstein graduates from Franklin and during the summer before
college, he attends Reginald Marsh’s painting class at the Art Students League
on West 57th Street. Rarely there, Marsh employs substitute teachers to instruct
in anatomical drawing and techniques such as glazing and underpainting, but
the class’s insistence on technique over process is dissatisfying to Lichtenstein.
That fall, Lichtenstein begins his freshman year at Ohio State University in
Columbus, a college where his parents felt he could pursue his interest in art,
while earning a Bachelor’s Degree. Early on, he studies Elementary Design and
Freehand Drawing among other courses such as Botany, Literature and History.
His own works during this period include portraits and still lifes styled after
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