Roy Lichtenstein

About

Roy Lichtenstein, the master of pop art, just turned 100—and the ALBERTINA Museum is celebrating the artist with a sweeping retrospective set to feature over 90 paintings, sculptures, and graphic works.

The most important creations from Lichtenstein’s wide-ranging oeuvre will be coming to Vienna from all over the world thanks to the generosity of international institutions including New York’s Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Museum Ludwig in Cologne, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, and the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid as well as thanks to private collectors.

The idea for this exhibition arose from dialog between the Albertina Museum and the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation upon the latter’s generous donation of around 100 works.

Roy Lichtenstein is known for his stereotyped blondes, war heroes, and comic book figures with speech balloons. His cartoon-like aesthetic, employing brashly luminous colors, clear lines, and characteristic Ben Day dots in imitation of cheap comic book printing techniques, was hugely influential in the American art scene of the 1960s.

This exhibition begins in the ’60s with early works by Lichtenstein that include two of that era’s icons: Look Mickey and Popeye, now to be seen together for the first time in decades. Likewise on exhibit will be the artist’s iconic black-and-white paintings of objects taken from product advertisements as well as landscapes in enamel technique and paintings that paraphrase works by artists such as Picasso, Dalí, Kirchner, and Pollock. A special highlight will be a gigantic Brushstroke sculpture, liberated from the canvas to conquer the exhibition space.

Together with Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock, Roy Lichtenstein numbers among the 20th century’s most influential and important American artists.

This exhibition is being realized with support from and in collaboration with the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation and the Roy Lichtenstein Estate.