Bedroom at Arles, 1992 by Roy Lichtenstein

In the early 1960s, Lichtenstein reproduced masterpieces by Paul Cezanne, Piet Mondrian and Picasso before embarking on the Brushstroke series in 1965. Lichtenstein continued to revisit this theme later in his career with works such as Bedroom at Arles that derived from Bedroom in Arles of Van Gogh.

It was in the 1960s that Lichtenstein first began parodying well-known paintings by other masters. Here, he takes van Gogh's expressive post-Impressionist style and turns it into his own cartoonish vision. Using oil and magna, he "cleans up" the original swirling surfaces. He flattens the texture on the wood of the bed and the chair seats. Lichtenstein creates an alternative version of van Gogh's willful brushstrokes: the floor boards are transformed into a sinuously patterned plane and the blue back wall is filtered into a screen of Ben-Day dots.