This Must be the Place

Medium: Offset lithograph, in yellow, red, blue, and black, on white wove paper
Year: 1965
Sheet: 24 3/4 x 17 3/4 inches (62.9 x 45.2 cm)
Image: 21 3/8 x 16 inches (54.3 x 40.7 cm)
Edition: Open edition of unknown size
Publisher: Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
Printer: Unknown
Literature: Corlett III.20

Roy Lichtenstein Catalogue Raisonne: RLCR 1177

This Must Be the Place, 1965 (RLCR 1177) | Catalogue entry | Roy Lichtenstein: A Catalogue Raisonné

Signed and dated in the plate
Some additionally signed in pencil (number unknown)

This image was created to publicize the National Cartoonists Society’s (NCS) Nineteenth Annual Reuben Awards dinner (1965). An undated NCS press release (found in the New York Public Library clipping files) indicates that it was first published as a poster by the Society. Shortly thereafter the Leo Castelli Gallery republished the image as this print, RLCR 1177. The press release states: “The Castelli Gallery in New York has arranged for a special limited edition of the drawing for the NCS poster, printed from the same plates, that will be sold at the Gallery for $15. a print. The Society edition is already a collectors item. So, after it has done its job to publicize the Reuben Awards . . . and we hope you post it for the widest exposure . . . put it in your print collection.”

In 2002, the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation published a reprint of this 1965 print; the posthumous screenprinted edition was executed by Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles (Gemini no. RL02-5290).

“[This poster] was supposed to be Buck Rogers architecture, or that’s what it meant to me. Then when looking at it, it began to look very thirties.
Later I did a poster for the Lincoln Center Film Festival and I wanted something about the movies, just as a design, and the thirties occurred to me.”

Roy Lichtenstein

Auction Results

ROY LICHTENSTEIN (1923-1997)
This Must Be the Place (Corlett III.20), 1965
Offset lithograph in colors on wove paper
Signed in pencil, from the edition of unknown size

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Sotheby’s New-York: 19 April 2024
Estimated: USD 6,000 – 8,000
USD 15,240

ROY LICHTENSTEIN (1923 – 1997)
This Must Be the Place (Corlett III.20), 1965
Offset lithograph printed in colors on wove paper
Signed in pencil
This impression is from the edition of unknown size, published by Leo Castelli Gallery

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Phillips New-York: 20 April 2022
Estimated: USD 6,000 – 8,000
USD 19,530

Sotheby’s New-York: 16 December 2021
Estimated: USD 6,000 – 8,000
USD 23,940

ROY LICHTENSTEIN (1923 – 1997)
This Must be the Place, 1965
Offset lithograph in colors on wove paper
Signed R. Lichtenstein twice and dated 1965 (lower right)
This example is from an open edition, published by Leo Castelli Gallery