Pop Art Continues to be Major Draw for Fine Art Collectors

Treasure Hunters Roadshow (THR), one of the main buyers of precious metals, musical instruments, militaria and fine arts in the world, has been traveling throughout the United States, Canada and Europe since 1996 in search of the most unusual and rarest memorabilia. Traveling as part of the THR teams, who host close to 100 shows each and every week, is an elite group of art professionals who are hunting for America’s lost artwork.

Though the traditional landscape artists such as Thomas Moran and Albert Bierstadt are often the most commonly sought after items by fine art collectors in the United States, there is also an expanding desire for the works from the “pop art” movement by leading innovators such as Roy Lichtenstein.

These pieces are thoroughly examined by the professionals, and if they deem them to be of value and genuine, they will make an offer to purchase them on the spot. The THR art aficionados are thrilled to come across American artwork to present to the audience as the Treasure Hunters Roadshow Tv show begins yet another exciting season.

While the height of Roy Lichtenstein’s work came in the 1960s, Treasure Hunters Roadshow authorities have seen that collectors currently continue scooping up his original prints and are eager to shell out big bucks to complete their collections. Famous for his works that were influenced by advertising and comic books, Lichtenstein defined the pop art movement via tongue-in-cheek humor and parodies of mainstream culture.

Roy Lichtenstein grew up in New York City in an upper-middle class family but was not a student of the arts. As an alternative, he toyed with style and design and painting as a hobby. Oftentimes, Lichtenstein could be found drawing images of the artists performing music at the Apollo Theatre. He went on to earn his Master’s of Fine Arts degree from Ohio State University following a tour of duty during WWII.

Soon after finishing his degree, he joined the abstract expressionism school after dabbling in cubism and expressionism. His first work,“Look Mickey” (1961), came from a challenge by his son who pointed to a comic book of Mickey Mouse and said, “Hey, dad, bet you can’t paint as good as this.” His work was displayed for the first time at the Castelli gallery in 1962, where each piece was purchased by investors before the show even opened.

However, having used subjects from other forms of mass media, several critics began to question Lichtenstein’s originality. His most recognizable and well-known pieces were replicas of comic book panels, even though he had largely abandoned the concept by 1965. Frustrated by his patronizing take on comic book art, noted comic book artist Art Spiegelman commented that “Lichtenstein did no more or less for comics than Andy Warhol did for soup.”

Responding to his critics, in the late 1970s Lichtenstein began to use a more bizarre style in his art with plastic and metal sculptures and several hundred screen-printed pieces. In 1996, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. came to own the biggest collection of Roy Lichtenstein pieces, though it is thought that a huge quantity of his work continues to be in personal collections.

Have some pop art lying around the household but not positive if it is of value? Check out the Treasure Hunters Roadshow events web page to find a show close to you and the fine art specialists will be able to evaluate it for no charge. You never know – what may seem like a foolish comic book print to you could end up being a Roy Lichtenstein original well worth a small fortune!