Blondes, superheroes and Mickey Mouse – with his drastically enlarged comic subjects, Lichtenstein caused a commotion in the art world of the 1960s. In 1964, a New York Times headline read: “One of the Worst Artists in America.“ Since then, the American artist who died in 1997 has come to rank as one of the greatest icons of pop art next to Andy Warhol. Benday dots became his trademark, his artworks seemingly anonymous, mechanical reproductions in the age of mass media, Disneyland and billboards. Chris Hunt met the likable artist in his New York studio and found himself face to face with a great painter as well as a “closet classicist.“