Context

Context

Lichenstein's work is very abstract and surrealistic. He was a founder and practitioner of Pop Art, a movement that countered the techniques and concepts of Abstract Expressionism with images and techniques taken from popular culture. Since he grew up in New York, he was not unfamiliar with the Statue of Liberty, his subject in this piece. Lichtenstein was very influenced by the American West and comic book art. These were both aspects that he repeated in many of his works. He spent an amount of time creating paintings for children of cartoons such as Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. He greatly enjoyed comic book art which was a theme that he repeated in many of his paintings including this one. Many comic book artists used halftone patterns and stripes which Lichtenstein emulated in his pieces. Painting straight-forward, direct pieces began to bore him and he decided to incorporate real issues such as war, romance, and politics into his work. 

Due to this desire to make real art about real, current issues with bold colors and shapes, Lichtenstein's work was considered Pop Art. Other artists that were notable in the Pop Art movement were Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Jasper Johns, and Richard Hamilton. Perhaps Lichtenstein was somewhat influenced by these artists.

He mixed a simple, cartoon style with deep, heavy issues. "Painting With the Statue of Liberty" was made in 1983. This time period could have influenced the bright, bold colors since that was a very popular trend in that time period. Fashion, movies, and television all seemed to use bright, bold colors at this time. Lichenstein may have also been influenced by events that were happening in the world. The American Iconography greatly suggest his statements on politics. America was in the midst of the Cold War. There was a great concern of a nuclear war. For decades, there had been this constant silent battle of countries to show who had the most patriotism and who was the best. A lot of people had a large sense of patriotism. This may have influenced him to use American iconography in his pieces in order to draw his viewers in. People wanted to see more of the country the took so much pride in.