Knock, Knock Poster
Knock, Knock Poster
Signed Print
Roy Lichtenstein
£2,650-£3,950 VALUE (EST.)
$4,900-$7,500 VALUE (EST.)
$4,450-$6,500 VALUE (EST.)
¥22,000-¥35,000 VALUE (EST.)
€3,000-€4,500 VALUE (EST.)
$26,000-$40,000 VALUE (EST.)
¥430,000-¥640,000 VALUE (EST.)
$3,250-$4,900 VALUE (EST.)
This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.
Relief print, 1975
Signed Print Edition of 100
H 55cm x W 42cm
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Meaning & Analysis
Pop pioneer Roy Lichtenstein completed his iconic Knock, Knock Poster in 1975. The black and white minimalist relief print belongs to a signed and limited edition of 100. The work was commissioned by the Centre National d'Art Contemporain in Paris to promote the exhibition “Dessins de Lichtenstein”.
Artificiality, parody, and appropriation quickly became key components of pop pioneer Roy Lichtenstein’s creative oeuvre. The artist’s signature style elevated various banal sources in his practice, thereby challenging notions and conventions of high art. Emphasising the object qualities of his artworks, Lichtenstein mimicked the look of commercial press production to the point that his own brushstrokes disappeared.
Having achieved international recognition and success as early as the 1960s, Lichtenstein turned away from his usual comic book subjects and began experimenting with new topics. His iconic Knock, Knock Poster from 1975 is a monochrome object print depicting an ordinary item. In line with On and Spray Can of the mid-1960s, the artist here contrasts the trivial and the serious; the mechanical versus the handmade. The poster was originally created to promote the exhibition "Dessins de Lichtenstein" ("Drawings of Lichtenstein") held at the Centre National d'Art Contemporain in Paris, France.
True to the exhibition's focus, Lichtenstein created a stripped-down, hand-drawn comic-style image depicting a door being knocked at. "Knock Knock" is an onomatopoeic phrase that mimics the sound of knocking. The work’s title also functions as a clever acronym for the exhibition venue (CNAC). This wordplay pun perfectly showcases Lichtenstein's wry sense of humour within his signature pop style.
