Picasso's always been such a huge influence that I thought when I started the cartoon paintings that I was getting away from Picasso, and even my cartoons of Picasso were done almost to rid myself of his influence. ”
Roy Lichtenstein was an american painter who was a founder and foremost practitioner of Pop art, a movement that countered the techniques and concepts of Abstract Expressionism with images and techniques taken from popular culture.
As a teenager, Lichtenstein studied briefly with the painter Reginald Marsh. After serving in the military during World War II, he attended the Ohio State University, teaching there from 1946 to 1951 and receiving a masters degree in 1949. He also taught at New York State University College, Oswego (1957–60), and at Douglass College of Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey (1960–63).