# 5793 - 2023 First-Class Forever Stamp - Paintings by Roy Liechtenstein: Modern Painting I, 1966 (3 dots in rt corner)

U.S. #5793
2023 Modern Painting I – Roy Lichtenstein

• Part of a set of 5 stamps honoring American artist Roy Lichtenstein
• Pictures Lichtenstein’s “Modern Painting I” 

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 oil on magna on canvas “Modern Painting I” (1966).

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:  Like most artists of his era, Roy Lichtenstein experimented with abstraction.  But he usually did so while still retaining his Pop Art style.

In the 1950s, Lichtenstein tried his hand at abstract expressionism, creating spontaneous, frantic paintings.  However, that style didn’t suit him.  After gaining success as pop artist, he designed a poster for New York’s Lincoln Center in 1966.  His poster focused on 1920s to 1930s Art Deco architecture.  This inspired a series he called “Cubism for the Home” and the start of his Modern series.  These works were highly stylized images of items that were already stylized versions of something else.  Lichtenstein produced paintings and sculptures depicting brass ornaments and geometric wallpaper found in skyscrapers and theater signs.  His dramatic paintings had thick, bold lines, vibrant colors, and his characteristic Ben-Day dots.

In the late 1970s, Lichtenstein began work on a long-running series he called Perfect/Imperfect.  He approached these paintings much like those from Modern, drawing them out on graph paper first.  Lines were the main focus of these paintings, creating shapes filled with colors, patterns, and dots.  Perfect paintings were self-contained, while Imperfect paintings had triangles beyond the edges of the canvas, as if they were a “mistake.”