Masterpiece

Masterpiece is a 1962 Pop art painting by Roy Lichtenstein that uses his classic Ben-Day dots and a speech balloon. It is known for its narrative content that predicted Lichtenstein's fame. In 2017 the painting sold for $165 million.

The painting was a part of Lichtenstein’s first exhibition at the Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles, featuring other works like the Drowning Girl and the Portrait of Madame Cezanne. Masterpiece depicts a man and a woman, looking at a canvas (but it is not visible to us). A speech bubble from the woman’s mouth shows that she is saying that the man’s work is ‘a masterpiece’ that will get ‘all of New York’ excited. Masterpiece is regarded as a tongue-in-cheek joke that reflects Lichtenstein’s artistic career. The following are his famous paintings.