The World's Largest Modern & Contemporary Prints & Editions Platform
Crak - Signed Print by Roy Lichtenstein 1963 - MyArtBroker

Crak
Signed Print

Roy Lichtenstein

£12,500-£19,000Value Indicator

$26,000-$40,000 Value Indicator

$23,000-$35,000 Value Indicator

¥120,000-¥180,000 Value Indicator

€14,500-€22,000 Value Indicator

$130,000-$200,000 Value Indicator

¥2,480,000-¥3,770,000 Value Indicator

$17,000-$26,000 Value Indicator

There aren't enough data points on this work for a comprehensive result. Please speak to a specialist by making an enquiry.

49 x 70cm, Edition of 300, Lithograph

Medium: Lithograph

Edition size: 300

Year: 1963

Size: H 49cm x W 70cm

Signed: Yes

Format: Signed Print

Last Auction: June 2025

Value Trend:

16% AAGR

AAGR (5 years) This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.

TradingFloor

10+ in network
10+ want this
Find out how Buying or Selling works.

Auction Results

Auction Date
Auction House
Location
Return to Seller
Hammer Price
Buyer Paid
June 2025
Karl & Faber
Germany
£7,638
£8,986
£11,233
June 2025
Karl & Faber
Germany
November 2024
Van Ham Fine Art Auctions
Germany
June 2024
Rago
United States
March 2024
John Moran Auctioneers
United States
March 2024
Christie's New York
United States
September 2023
Phillips New York
United States
MyPortfolio
Auction Table Image
Unlock access to our full history of auction results
400+International auction houses tracked
30+Years of auction data
We are passionate about selling art, not data. We will never share or sell your information without your permission.

Track auction value trend

The value of Roy Lichtenstein’s Crak (signed) is estimated to be worth between £12,500 and £19,000. This lithograph print, created in 1963, has shown consistent value growth, with an average annual growth rate of 3%. This work has an auction history of 36 total sales since its entry to the market in September 2007. In the last 12 months, the average selling price was £12,525, across 3 total sales. Over the past five years, the hammer price has varied from £8,986 in June 2025 to £22,067 in November 2022. The average annual growth rate of this work is 3%. The edition size of this artwork is limited to 300.

Created with Highcharts 11.4.8Sep 2023Dec 2023Apr 2024Jul 2024Nov 2024Feb 2025Jun 2025£7,000£8,000£9,000£10,000£11,000© MyArtBroker

Meaning & Analysis

The comic strip style was a means for the artist to visually represent narrative in an accessible and engaging manner, adeptly incorporating a wide range of subject matter relating to the human condition. The composition of Crakis reworked from a narrative written by Bob Haney and illustrated by Jack Abel in Star Spangled War Stories#102 from 1962. Lichtenstein crops and partially abstracts the image, and adds sand bags to the bottom left corner of the composition. It belongs to an established tradition of work created by the artist that relates to the military aesthetic and monocular vision. Politically loaded or socially subversive statements are barely concealed beneath the vibrant colours and graphic forms, and the overt approach to violence and female power is striking and profound. Adapting the original source in this way, Lichtenstein transforms the image and imbues it with his own artistic style, and was sophisticated in his reinvention of the visual language of popular culture. In his own words, "I am nominally copying, but I am really restating the copied thing in other terms. In doing that, the original acquires a totally different texture. It isn't thick or thin brushstrokes, it's dots and flat colours and unyielding lines."

Born in Manhattan in 1923, Roy Lichtenstein was a leading figure in the Pop Art movement during the second half of the 20th century. 1963 was a significant year for the artist’s career, during which he made some of his most well-known and successful works alongside Crak, including Whaam!Hopeless and Drowning Girl. They are depicted in his primary colour palette and with a satirical take on popular fiction that elevates trivial or familiar subjects into meaningful social commentary, blurring the distinction between high art and visual culture. This prosperous period of his career would go on not only to establish his name at the forefront of the American Pop Art movement, but to shape the trajectory of modern art.

Lichtenstein’s unique artistic style originates in the visual language of advertising and mass consumerism that was at the forefront of American popular culture during his lifetime, and his work evokes a society of widespread commercialism that has remained powerfully relevant to this day. He adapted artistic techniques from the commercial printing industry in his work, for example his appropriation of the Ben-Day dot, a technique derived from the images reproduced in newspaper print, meticulously mimicking the industrial process in his own hand. He also produced works that were influenced by comic strips, appropriating and parodying the typical motifs such as lettering and speech balloons, all of which would become signatures of his artwork. These distinctive and culturally relevant tropes are defining elements of Crak.

  • Roy Lichtenstein, born in New York, 1923, is a seminal figure in the Pop Art movement, renowned for his comic book and advertisement-inspired artworks. His transformative journey from classical painter to Pop Art pioneer began with his iconic piece, Look Mickey, marking the fusion of painting with pop culture. Lichtenstein’s works, including Whaam!, Drowning Girl, and Crying Girl, blend parody and satire, challenging the boundaries between popular culture and ‘high art’. With over 5,000 pieces to his name, Lichtenstein’s enduring influence resonates in contemporary art, his works celebrated in prestigious institutions worldwide.

More from Roy Lichtenstein