Pointillism Pointillism Pointillism () is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image. Georges Seurat and Paul Signac developed the technique in 1886, branching from Impressionism. The term "Pointillism" was coined by art critics in the late 1880s to ridicule the works of these artists, and is now used without its earlier mocking connotation. The movement Seurat began with this technique is known as Neo-impressionism. The Divisionists, too, used a similar technique of patterns to form images, though with larger cube-like brushstrokes. The technique relies on the ability of the
Big Painting No. 6 is in part a satirical response to the gestural painting of Abstract Expressionism. Like most of Lichtenstein's Ben-Day dots works it is a depiction of mechanical reproduction via painterly technique. In this case, the satire comes from the depiction of the graphical depiction of the spontaneous painting motion in painstaking painterly detail. In early 1970, Andy Warhol established the record auction price for a painting by a living American artist with a $60,000 (US$ in dollars) sale of "Big Campbell's Soup Can with Torn Label (Vegetable Beef)" (1962), which is part of the "Campbell's Soup Cans" series, in a sale