by Iris Herriot
“‘It’s called stealing’: new allegations of plagiarism against Roy Lichtenstein
Pop art founder made millions, but the comic book artists he copied struggled financially…
Lichtenstein himself said: ‘My work has been accused of looking like the things that I copy,
and it certainly does look like the things I copy… But it is that quality, whatever art is,
that transforms the work of art to be something different.”
—The Guardian
My work does look much like the things I copy,
So some who made those things are getting stroppy.
But it’s that quality, whatever art is,
That makes me different from those other parties.
What takes a 4-cent comic and transforms it,
Engages the artistic world and storms it?
That quality is hard to be precise on,
But fortunately not to put a price on.