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  Roy Lichtenstein. Look Mickey, 1961. © National Gallery of Art. Dorothy and Roy Lichtenstein, Gift of the Artist, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art.

A 1964 Life Magazine article titled “Is he the worst artist in the U.S.?” featured Roy Lichtenstein's first Pop painting, Look Mickey (1961). Shocking audiences five decades ago was his ground-breaking use of pop culture and advertising imagery, mixing high and low art.

Today considered iconic, Lichtenstein's work has soared into the tens of millions of dollars at auction. His "Sleeping Girl" sold for an artist auction record price of $44.9 million at Sotheby's last month.

A major retrospective of Roy Lichtenstein's work debuted to eager corwds at the Art Institute of Chicago in late May.

The exhibition, which runs through Sept. 3, showcases nearly 170 paintings, sculptures and drawings done between 1950 and 1997 when the artist died at age 73.

This first comprehensive survey of the artist's work encompasses his famous cartoon-like imagery, interpretations of everyday objects such as a coffee cup or hot dog, and later Asian-inspired works.

James Rondeau, the exhibit’s co-curator says that Lichtenstein masterfully transformed the everyday into powerful art. “He was able to show us something new about the world in which we live and about ourselves and how we see the world,” Rondeau tells the Washington Post.

After Chicago, the exhibit travels to Washington, London and Paris.

More info: http://roy.artic.edu/