“Drawing is the basis of my art. It is where my thinking takes place. It is a big part of my painting. The paintings are always the same, only larger. But they may not get at all better. I am not thinking it up while I am actually doing the painting. A certain spontaneity is lost. Drawing has more interesting traces . . .” Roy Lichtenstein Written in close collaboration with the Roy Lichtenstein Estate and Foundation, this monograph presents an extraordinary selection of over 200 works on paper by the American artist, from the National Gallery ofWashington, DC, the MoMA and theWhitney Museum, New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as public and private European and American collections. Devoted to his works on paper that represent the most private and poetic aspect of Roy Lichtenstein’s production, this volume provides the reader with a unique perspective for getting to know and appreciate the artist’s oeuvre, through the “first works”, namely the original ideas, that were to be the source of inspiration for his great, world-famous masterpieces. The volume includes texts by Danilo Eccher, Dorothy Lichtenstein, Bernice Rose, Jack Cowart, Thomas Zacharias (“Lichtenstein Draws”), and Andrea C. Theil, a chronology (by Clare Bell), and a list of exhibitions in Italy.