A Major Roy Lichtenstein Show Is Bound for Whitney Museum
Experience over 130 works by the Pop pioneer in ‘Like New,’ including a total reconstruction of his 1962 ‘Pop’ debut.
Summary
- Whitney Museum of American Art will unveil Roy Lichtenstein: Like New this October
- The exhibition features over 130 paintings, sculptures, drawings, films, and installations by the artist, spanning his most iconic paintings to early works
You could argue that Roy Lichtenstein helped lay the groundwork for today’s culture of unstable images. His most recognizable works – taken straight from comic books, enlarged, painted over, and Ben Day-dotted – feel like primers to the endless acts of cropping, reposting, and memeing, even, that define contemporary visual culture.
The Pop Art pioneer will be the star of a major survey presented by the Whitney Museum of American Art this fall. Opening in New York on October 11, Like New gathers over 130 works, including painting, drawing, collage, prints, sculpture, and film, from across Lichtenstein’s career, revisiting his enduring practice through a 21st-century lens.
Curated by Meg Onli and artist Alex Da Corte, alongside Nakai Falcón and David Crane, the selection traces his early fascination with perception, consumerism, and commercial culture to some of his most defining works, like “Look Mickey” (1961), “Drowning Girl” (1963), and “Masterpiece” (1962).
Of the highlights we know of so far is the full eight-piece Pop collection, which lets audiences relive Lichtenstein’s landmark 1962 debut at Leo Castelli Gallery in a similarly intimate moment as his studio donation in 2023. Elsewhere, three murals will be recreated, including the 96-foot “Greene Street Mural” (1983), alongside an outdoor “Girl in Window” (1964), realized by co-curator and artist Da Corte.
The exhibition also traces the artist’s influence beyond Pop, pairing his work with contemporaries like Louise Lawler, Richard Pettibone, and Sturtevant to further Like New’s study of appropriation and the fluid afterlife of images.
Lichtenstein had a way with everyday images, and through it, changed the game of high art. Inspired, referential, yet entirely his own, it was him after all, who once said: “All my art is in some way about other art, even if the other art is cartoons.”
Like New opens October 11 at the Whitney, with member previews running October 8 through 10. Head to the museum’s website to secure your tickets today.
Whitney Museum of American Art
99 Gansevoort St,
New York, NY 10014
