Roy Lichtenstein
Reflections On Minerva C 244, 1990
Available at VFA
Dorothy Lichtenstein, Roy Lichtenstein’s widow, died on July 4 at her home in Southampton, New York. The cause of death was reportedly heart failure after a brief illness. She was 84.
Ms. Lichtenstein was the Founding President of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation and a generous and notable supporter of the arts.
She was born on October 26, 1939 and grew up in Brooklyn. Her father was a municipal judge who served on the Brooklyn Supreme Court, her mother a housewife who raised Ms. Lichtenstein and her two older sisters.
She majored in political science with a minor in art history at Arcadia College. In 1964, after graduation, Ms. Lichtenstein worked at the Paul Bianchini Gallery in Manhattan, which is where she met Roy Lichtenstein.
The gallery hosted the American Supermarket Exhibit, displaying works by Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and other prominent Pop artists of the day. The gallery space was transformed to look like a supermarket, featuring every-day consumer objects embellished with high art. The couple met when Mr. Lichtenstein was in the gallery to autograph paper shopping bags with his silkscreened design of a turkey in a roasting pan. The couple married four years later; a marriage that lasted nearly thirty years, until his death in 1997.
As president of the Foundation, Ms. Lichtenstein has donated most of its holdings to museums around the world. Her goal, she said, was to gift all of its holdings by the year 2026. The Whitney Museum, which is planning a Roy Lichtenstein retrospective in 2026, has been a primary beneficiary of the oundation's holdings. The couple’s former home and studio, just a few blocks from the Whitney, was donated to the museum and is now the permanent space for its Independent Study Program. Ms. Lichtenstein declined the Whitney’s offer to rename the building in the honor.
The Lichtensteins moved to Southampton in 1970, where Ms. Lichtenstein continued her benevolent work. She was honored for work as trustee of the Parrish Art Museum, elected an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication and was the primary funder of the creative writing and film programs at Stony Brook Southampton, part of the State University of New York.
Dorothy Liechtenstein is survived by her stepsons David, a composer and musician, and Mitchell, a filmmaker and actor, as well as a nephew and three nieces.
References:
Deborah Solomon. Dorothy Lichtenstein, Philanthropist and a Rare ‘Artist’s Widow,’ Dies at 84. The New York Times. July 11, 2024.
Tessa Solomon. Dorothy Lichtenstein, President of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, Dies at 84. ArtNews. July 7, 2024.
Sarah Cascone. Pop Artist Roy Lichtenstein Is Getting a Retrospective at the Whitney—and a Stamp of Approval From the USPS, Too. Artnet. April 24, 2023.
