Roy F. Lichtenstein
American, 1923 - 1997Sweet Dreams Baby!, 1966
On view
Silkscreen on paper
Dimensions39 × 28 3/4 in. (99.1 × 73 cm)
Image: 37 1/2 × 27 1/2 in. (95.3 × 69.9 cm)
Museum purchase, 1966.6
In 1960 Roy Lichtenstein began to introduce comic book figures in his painting and prints. The idea was inspired by the bubble gum wrappers and comic books that he had grown up with. He would take a common image and alter it with comic book design elements that included: flatness of form, thick black lines that encircle the forms, use of primary colors, text bubbles, and the Ben-Day dot technique.
The Ben-Day dot technique is a screen of small, colored dots, which create the shading and colors used in comic books, newspapers, and magazines. He often produced artwork based upon romance novels and war comics that dealt with the dramas of human life. Sweet Dreams, Baby!, with it combination of wit and drama and its suggestion of comic-strip violence, remains one of Lichtenstein’s most well-known prints from the decade.
