Roy Lichtenstein — Modern Head For Sale

Roy Lichtenstein Modern Head Prints For Sale

Roy Lichtenstein Modern Head prints for sale at Guy Hepner Gallery, New York. The Modern Head series (1970) is a pivotal body of work in Lichtenstein's print output — a suite of five prints exploring geometric, Art Deco-inflected portraiture, in which the human head is stylised into the angular, machine-age aesthetic of 1920s and 1930s commercial design.

The Series

The Modern Head series draws on the graphic conventions of Art Deco design — the angular, streamlined aesthetic that dominated commercial art and illustration between the wars. Where Lichtenstein's early Pop works engaged with the comics and advertising of the 1950s and 1960s, the Modern Head prints look further back, to the design language of the machine age: the geometric stylisation of the human face into chevrons, arcs, and stepped forms that characterised the Deco poster and magazine illustration.

The five Modern Head prints each present a different stylised portrait — angular profiles and three-quarter views rendered in Lichtenstein's flat colour and dot pattern vocabulary — that simultaneously evoke Deco design and submit it to his Pop graphic system. The result is a body of work that operates on two levels: as a formal investigation of geometric portraiture, and as a Pop commentary on the design style that preceded his own era.

The series was produced in 1970, at a moment when Lichtenstein was actively expanding his engagement with art history — the same period that produced his Haystacks and Cathedral portfolios (Monet dialogues) and preceded his sustained engagement with Entablatures (classical architecture). The Modern Head works represent his first sustained engagement with the design aesthetic of the interwar period, a dialogue he would return to in the Art Deco prints of the 1990s.

The Modern Head prints represent Lichtenstein's most direct engagement with 1920s–30s design language, making them distinctive within his catalogue and appealing to collectors interested in the intersection of Pop Art and design history.

All five Modern Head prints together represent a significant acquisition; individual prints also trade well on the secondary market.

Standard Lichtenstein screenprint condition considerations apply. Request a condition report with specific attention to any surface abrasion in the angular geometric areas.

Hand-signed examples carry premiums over unsigned impressions from the same edition.

Corlett catalogue raisonné reference and publisher documentation are essential.

Authentication

Modern Head prints are authenticated via the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation catalogue raisonné (Corlett). Guy Hepner provides full provenance documentation for all works.

Acquire Modern Head Prints at Guy Hepner

Contact our New York team at 177 Tenth Avenue to discuss current availability, condition, and acquisition guidance for the Modern Head series.