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Roy Lichtenstein, Look Mickey, 1961, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Roy and Dorothy Lichtenstein in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art

Look Mickey, Lichtenstein

This painting was the first for which Lichtenstein borrowed an image directly from popular culture: a children’s book called Donald Duck: Lost and Found. He began this work by making a sketch from his source and then recomposing the image for narrative and formal purposes. He traced the drawing onto a canvas, making more adjustments, and then painted the dots using a perforated metal screen as a stencil, imitating industrial printing techniques. Lichtenstein would later refer to this work as his first pop art painting.

09/30/16