Roy Lichtenstein
BICENTENNIAL POSTER (AMERICAN: THE THIRD CENTURY), 1975
Available at Surovek Gallery
Dorothy Lichtenstein died on July 4, 2024 at her home in Southampton, New York at age 84. The cause of death was reportedly heart failure after a short illness.
Although she was not an artist herself, Ms. Lichtenstein was a generous and enthusiastic supporter of the arts.
She was born on October 26, 1939 and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He father was a municipal judge who served on the Brooklyn Supreme Court. Her mother was a homemaker who raised Ms. Lichtenstein and her two older sisters.
After graduating from Arcadia University, with a major in political science and a minor in art history, Ms. Lichtenstein became the director of the Paul Bianchini Gallery in Manhattan. In 1964 the gallery was transformed to look like a grocery store and staged an exhibit called American Supermarket. Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and several other eminent Pop artists were part of the group show. The Lichtensteins met when Mr. Lichtenstein, who was divorced with two young sons, visited the gallery to sign silkscreened paper shopping bags that he had created for the exhibit. The couple married in 1968 and were together until his death in 1997.
Ms. Lichtenstein was President of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, generously donating work and funds to museums in the United States and abroad. In 2018, Ms. Lichtenstein said that her goal was to increase gifts and close the foundation by 2026
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The Whitney Museum has been the largest beneficiary of the foundation, receiving hundreds of works by the artist and the building, just our blocks from the museum, that was the home and studio of the Lichtensteins. The Whitney is planning a Roy Lichtenstein Retrospective in 20026.
One of the most impressive undertakings of the foundation is the creation of the Roy Lichtenstein Catalogue Raisonné, containing more than 5,500 works in all media, from public and private collections. The catalogue will continue to be updated. It is online and access is free to the public.
The couple moved to Southampton, New York in 1970, where Ms. Lichtenstein continued her generous patronage of art and science. In addition to her work with the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, she served on the board of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, was a Lifetime Trustee of the Parrish Art Museum, was the primary funder of the creative writing and film programs at Stony Brook Southampton, part of the State University of New York, and served on the Leadership Council of the New York Stem Cell Foundation. In 2001 the French Ministry of Culture and Communication awarded her an Officier del’ Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Dorothy Lichtenstein is survived by her stepsons David, a composer and musician, and Mitchell, a filmmaker and actor, as well as a nephew and three nieces.
In a tribute in The New York Times, her stepsons wrote, “To us, and a great many others, Dorothy was a powerful model of how to be in the world. She was kind and deeply empathic, always doing "the next right thing" and treating others with patience, love and tolerance.”
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.
Sam Moskowitz. Remembering Dorothy Lichtenstein. Village Preservation Blog. July 12, 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.
