Skate deck made of 7 ply grade A Canadian maple wood.
© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein, 2024, all rights reserved
Happy Tears (1964) was one of the last works Roy Lichtenstein painted before his first major solo exhibition at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York — a milestone that marked his definitive breakthrough in the contemporary art world. The piece portrays a blonde woman with tears in her eyes, yet wearing a serene, even triumphant expression. This introduces an emotional ambiguity that deviates from the typical drama found in romantic comics of the 1950s and '60s.
The image was taken from a panel in the Secret Hearts comic series, published by DC Comics in 1962. Lichtenstein removed any text or narrative context to focus solely on the woman’s face. By isolating and enlarging the scene, her expression takes on a new dimension: are these tears of genuine joy, or a kind of ironic relief? This ambiguity is central to Lichtenstein’s work, as he continuously played with the visual language of mass media.
A curious fact: Happy Tears was auctioned at Christie’s in 2002 for $7.1 million, one of the highest prices ever paid for a Lichtenstein piece at the time. It has since become one of his most iconic images, widely reproduced in books, posters, and consumer goods — reinforcing Lichtenstein’s message about the commodification of art and its mass circulation.
