{"product_id":"becoming-roy-lichtenstein-avis-berman-9780789215475","title":"Becoming Roy Lichtenstein: The Path to Pop","description":"When Roy Lichtenstein painted his breakthrough canvas \u003cem\u003eLook Mickey\u003c\/em\u003e in 1961--an image of Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse adapted from a storybook belonging to his young sons--he was an obscure thirty-seven-year-old assistant professor at Rutgers who had labored for years on the periphery of the art world. Within a few years, Pop paintings like this one, in which he transformed the crude imagery and graphic techniques of the funny pages into carefully ordered compositions, would make Lichtenstein rich and famous like few artists before. His art, instantly recognizable yet cool and impersonal, had the curious effect of obscuring its own history and the man behind it. But who was Roy Lichtenstein? And how had he, at the moment of painting \u003cem\u003eLook Mickey\u003c\/em\u003e, finally been able to transcend the boundaries of his own good taste and elevate comics to high art?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Now, for the first time, the story of Lichtenstein's life up through his \u003cem\u003eannus mirabilis\u003c\/em\u003e is told in full. Author Avis Berman, drawing on hundreds of interviews with the artist's friends, relatives, students, and colleagues, as well as extensive archival research, takes us from his childhood on the Upper West Side to his education at Ohio State, where a charismatic mentor teaches him \"how to see\"; his tumultuous first marriage and peripatetic teaching career; his struggle to find his own style and escape the shadow of Abstract Expressionism; and finally the fateful summer of 1961. It is an unexpectedly moving story, one that brings Lichtenstein to life as an American master to stand beside a Warhol, a Pollock, a de Kooning, an O'Keeffe.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eIllustrated in full color throughout\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Avis Berman\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0789215470\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780789215475\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Abbeville Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/20\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 592\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover","brand":"Avis Berman","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48801310048511,"sku":"9780789215475","price":50.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/becoming-roy-lichtenstein-avis-berman-9780789215475","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}