Up until the early 1960s, Roy Lichtenstein worked in an expressive, highly abstract style. Only in 1961, with the groundbreaking painting "Look Mickey", the artist found the expressive values \u8203\u8203 that played such a central role in his further artistic work. The reduction in color, the concise contouring and the grid of the surface are some of the special features that he uses here in a guiding manner. Another characteristic that stands out in this painting is the use of a speech bubble, which is indicative of Lichtenstein's clear orientation towards the stylistic elements of comics.
The serigraph offered here is one of the early graphic works with the expressive repertoire characteristic of Lichtenstein. On the occasion of the large-scale "Pop and Op" exhibition, eleven well-known American and British artists - including Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Mel Ramos and John Wesley - were commissioned to contribute three prints each to the three-volume portfolio "11 Pop Artists". The resulting works then toured the United States at several stops together with selected Op Art prints. The serigraph "Sweet Dreams Baby!" from volume III of the portfolio, is particularly convincing for its powerful conciseness. In addition to the use of the structuring Benday Dots in the areas of the face and fist, it is above all the lines of movement and the associated onomatopoeic lettering "Pow!" that convey the strong dynamics and expressiveness of the motif. The striking work shows the unmistakable style of the world-famous artist, and this above all on a motivic level in a condensed and particularly impressive form.