# 5792 - 2023 First-Class Forever Stamp - Paintings by Roy Liechtenstein: Standing Explosion (Red), 1965

U.S. #5792
2023 Standing Explosion (Red) – Roy Lichtenstein

• Part of a set of 5 stamps honoring American artist Roy Lichtenstein
• Pictures Lichtenstein’s sculpture “Standing Explosion (Red)”

Stamp Category:  Commemorative
Value:  63¢ First Class Mail (Forever)
First Day of Issue:  April 24, 2023
First Day City:  New York, New York
Quantity Issued:  18,000,000
Printed by:  Banknote Corporation of America
Printing Method:  Offset, Flexographic
Format:  Pane of 20
Tagging:  Phosphor tagged paper, block

Why the stamp was issued:  To commemorate Roy Lichtenstein with one of his more famous works of art.

About the stamp design:  Pictures Lichtenstein’s porcelain enamel on steel sculpture “Standing Explosion (Red)” (1965).

First Day City:  The stamps were issued April 24, 2023, in New York City, at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

About the Roy Lichtenstein set:  Set of five stamps celebrating the works of one of the most well-known American artists of the pop movement – Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997).  Each stamp pictures a different work by Lichtenstein:

“Standing Explosion (Red)” (porcelain enamel on steel sculpture, 1965)
“Modern Painting I” (oil on magna on canvas, 1966)
“Still Life with Crystal Bowl” (oil and magna on canvas, 1972)
“Still Life with Goldfish” (oil and magna on canvas, 1972)
“Portrait of a Woman” (oil and magna on linen, 1979)

The selvage of the pane of 20 pictures a photograph of Lichtenstein taken by Bob Adelman along with an image of Lichtenstein’s 1983 sculpture “Brushtrokes in Flight.”

History the stamp represents:  Most famous for his Pop Art paintings inspired by comics, Roy Lichtenstein also earned wide recognition for his sculptures.

Lichtenstein produced his earliest sculptures around 1964.  He enlisted the help of a ceramic artist who formed heads out of clay.  Lichtenstein then glazed the heads and used the same techniques as in his paintings.  Thick black lines and Ben-Day dots (small dots used in print to create shading) gave the three-dimensional forms a flattened appearance.

Also in the 1960s, Lichtenstein produced a series of Standing Explosion sculptures in various colors.  These sculptures recreated a comic book-style explosion out of cut steel painted with vibrant enamel.  They were artistic works laced with irony – a potentially violent explosion simplified to fun shapes and bright colors.

In the 1980s, Lichtenstein’s Brushstroke sculptures turned the most basic element of a painting – a brushstroke – into a three-dimensional work of art.  As Lichtenstein said, “Visible brushstrokes in a painting convey a sense of grand gesture.  But, in my hands, the brushstroke becomes a depiction of a grand gesture.”

Much like his paintings, Lichtenstein’s sculptures pushed the boundaries of perception and the definition of art.  Many of his sculptures still stand in public places, available for all to enjoy.