Exhibition Opening - Roy Lichtenstein: A Centennial Exhibition at Albertina Museum

Roy Lichtenstein: A Centennial Exhibition
Albertina Museum – Mar 08 to Jul 14, 2024 Vienna (Austria)

On the occasion of his 100th birthday, the Albertina Museum is celebrating the master of Pop Art, Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997, New York), with a comprehensive retrospective that brings together over 90 paintings, sculptures and prints. Alongside Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein is one of the founding figures of Pop Art and the one who combined Low Art and High Art.

International institutions.

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.

Cartoon-like aesthetic.

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.

Pop Art.

This exhibition begins in the ’60s with early works by Lichtenstein including the Pop Art icon of that era: Look Mickey. 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.