Book Description
Twelve years ago, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Arts for Transit commissioned Roy Lichtenstein to create a mural for the Times Square subway station at 42nd Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Fabricated by Lichtenstein in 1994, the mural was finally unveiled on September 5, 2002, a gift from the artist to all New Yorkers. Standing 6 feet high and 53 feet long, the mural provides a skyline view of a futuristic metropolis, as represented through Lichtenstein's trademark benday dots and comic book flair. The development of the mural is explored here through an essay by Harvard University scholar Scott Rothkopf and "Report on Miniaturization (Metropolis, 2030 A.D.)," a new, specially commissioned short story by Rick Moody. In this appropriately oversized book, viewers get a glimpse of Lichtenstein's creative process, interweaving motifs, and visionary themes, and of the four decades of art making and rich associations that went into the making of the Times Square Mural. Essays by Scott Rothkopf and Rick Moody. Introduction by Jack Cowart. Paperback, 11 x 15 in., 49 color, 15 b/w illustrations

About the Author
One of the most beloved of American pop artists, Roy Lichtenstein was born in 1923 in New York, and studied there at the Art Students League and later at Ohio State University, in the midst of which he completed a three-year tour of duty in the army. His early work was based on American genre and history painting, and took on cubist and expressionist styles. His first proto-pop work was created in 1956; his first pop Brushstroke painting appeared in 1965.