Roy Lichtenstein's Anxious Girl, a 1964 canvas from his celebrated 'Girls' series, is set to go under the hammer at Christie's New York on 18 May, with an estimate of up to $60 million (around €51 million). The work, which has been out of public view for more than three decades, offers a rare glimpse into the artist's most commercially successful period.
The painting depicts a distressed young woman with blonde hair and blue eyes, her hand pressed to her cheek in a gesture of melodramatic worry. It originally belonged to Horace and Holly Solomon, key figures in the 1960s Pop art scene, before entering a private collection where it remained largely unseen since the early 1990s.
Lichtenstein's 'Girls' series, which includes works like Whaam! and Drowning Girl, is among the most recognisable in 20th-century art. The series draws directly from comic book panels, a practice that sparked ongoing debate about appropriation versus plagiarism. Anxious Girl takes its composition from a DC Comics 'Girls' Romances' story titled Too Much to Ask!, though Lichtenstein removed the forehead crease present in the original panel, simplifying the expression.
Market Context and Provenance
The sale comes as the market for blue-chip Pop art remains robust. Lichtenstein's 1962 painting Masterpiece set a record for the artist in 2017, selling for $165 million (€141 million). The last 'Girls' series work to appear at auction was Nurse, which fetched $95 million (€81 million) at Christie's in 2015. Anxious Girl is the first from the series to be offered in over a decade.
Christie's deputy chairman Sara Friedlander described the painting as "the quintessential Pop portrait, a veritable icon of twentieth century art." In a press release, she noted that Lichtenstein's method "distills complex visual cues into three core elements—line, colour, and form—and formally employs them into conveying deep human emotion through timeless love stories and comic book-inspired imagery."
The work's reappearance after such a long absence is likely to attract significant attention from collectors. While the auction takes place in New York, European buyers—particularly from Germany, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom—have been active in the high-end art market in recent years. The sale also coincides with a broader trend of major Pop art works returning to auction as private collections are liquidated or restructured.
Lichtenstein's use of Ben-Day dots, a mechanical printing technique borrowed from comic production, became his signature. The technique, which involves small coloured dots to create shading and texture, was a hallmark of the Pop movement's engagement with mass production and consumer culture. Anxious Girl exemplifies this approach, with its flat colours and precise dot patterns contrasting with the emotional intensity of the subject.
For European readers, the sale underscores the enduring appeal of American Pop art in a global market where European collectors remain key players. The painting's journey from a New York gallery to a private collection and now back to auction reflects the transatlantic flow of art capital that has defined the post-war period.
