# 5794 - 2023 First-Class Forever Stamp - Paintings by Roy Liechtenstein: Still Life with Crystal Bowl, 1972

U.S. #5794
2023 Still Life with Crystal Bowl – Roy Lichtenstein

• Part of a set of 5 stamps honoring American artist Roy Lichtenstein
• Pictures Lichtenstein’s painting “Still Life with Crystal Bowl”

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 and magna on canvas painting “Still Life with Crystal Bowl” (1972).

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:  Some of Roy Lichtenstein’s most experimental artworks were landscapes.  He painted these traditional subjects in his signature Pop Art style while exploring new ways to give his paintings life.

Lichtenstein’s early landscapes coincided with his famous comic art-inspired paintings.  In fact, several of these early landscapes were taken from the backgrounds of comics.  The images were blown up, simplified to their most basic elements, and captured in Lichtenstein’s identifiable halftone-dot style.

Some landscapes were representational, using thick black lines to separate elements such as the sun, clouds, and land.  Others were abstract.  With no lines to separate the elements, large areas of solid color and groups of small dots gave the impression of sun, sky, water, etc.  Lichtenstein also used different materials in his landscapes, including plexiglass and plastic, to add movement and transparency to his works.

In his final years, Lichtenstein returned to landscapes, but this time focused on recreating classical Chinese landscapes.  In a series of 20 dramatic paintings, Lichtenstein captured the simple, yet elegant feel of these landscapes.  And he did so while using his signature halftone dots.  Some of these paintings used as many as 15 different dot sizes, magically capturing difficult elements such as fog and atmosphere.