Torpedo...Los! is a 1963 pop art oil on canvas painting by Roy Lichtenstein. When it was last sold in 1989, The New York Times described the work as "a comic-strip image of sea warfare". It formerly held the record for the highest auction price for a Lichtenstein work. Its 1989 sale helped finance the construction of the current home of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago in 1991.
Torpedo...Los!
The source of Torpedo...Los! is "Battle of the Ghost Ships?" (story by Bob Haney, art by Jack Abel) in DC Comics' Our Fighting Forces (October 1962).
Roy Fox Lichtenstein was an American pop artist. During the 1960's, along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and James Rosenquist, he became a leading figure in the new art movement. His work defined the premise of pop art through parody. Inspired by the comic strip, Lichtenstein produced precise compositions that documented while they parodied, often in a tongue-in-cheek manner. His work was influenced by popular advertising and the comic book style. His artwork was considered to be "disruptive". He described pop art as "not 'American' painting but actually industrial painting". His paintings were exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City.
Lichtenstein in 1967
Cap de Barcelona, 1992 sculpture, mixed media, Barcelona
Drowning Girl (1963). On display at the Museum of Modern Art, New York
Van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles (1888)