‘I’m never drawing the object itself,’ Roy Lichtenstein once said. ‘I’m only drawing a depiction of the object – a kind of crystallised symbol of it.’ In paintings and prints, the artist both scrutinised and paid homage to the visual culture of the United States in the post-war decades – a culture he helped create through appropriations of adverts, comic strips and mail-order catalogue items that brought him fame in his lifetime. This expansive show at the Whitney, co-curated with Alex Da Corte, is the first survey of the artist’s work in New York in more than three decades (11 October–10 May 2027). It positions Lichtenstein as a product of his time, connecting him not only to Pop art but also to Fluxus and other experimental groups, while also arguing that his interest in duplicates and the proliferation of images makes his art more relevant than ever in the age of AI.
Find out more from the Whitney’s website.
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