The Whitney Museum of American Art has opened 'Roy Lichtenstein: Like New,' the first major New York retrospective of the pop artist's work in 33 years. The exhibition features more than 130 works spanning six decades, from early 1940s studies to unfinished canvases left in Lichtenstein's studio at his death in 1997.
A 96ft (29-metre) recreation of Lichtenstein's monumental Greene Street Mural (1983) spans the entire entryway to the show. The original mural, inspired by the Bayeux tapestry's serial storytelling technique, was destroyed after six weeks in accordance with the artist's wishes.
Influence of Hoyt Sherman
Guest curator Alex Da Corte says Lichtenstein was "very interested in the Bayeux tapestry," noting its serial storytelling and comic-style frieze, which became the basis for Greene Street Mural. The exhibition's thesis centers on Lichtenstein's lifelong obsession with Hoyt Sherman, an obscure academic mentor at Ohio State University.
Sherman, a pioneer in optics and visual perception, built "flash labs" where mechanical devices flashed images for fractions of a second in pitch-black classrooms. Students drew what they saw in darkness, training holistic visual memory. Da Corte explains that Sherman's teaching methods were "eccentric and not to be overlooked," involving optical theorists from Aristotle to da Vinci and early 20th-century contemporaries.
Addressing accusations of plagiarism
The exhibition challenges persistent criticism of Lichtenstein as a plagiarist. Curators Meg Onli and Da Corte include original sketchbooks, source clippings, and preliminary drawings alongside comic book panels by illustrators such as Tony Abruzzo and William Overgard, showing how Lichtenstein reworked sources into composites.
Onli says it's "quite reductive to say he just lifted an image directly from a comic book; oftentimes, many different sources went directly into one composition." Da Corte draws parallels to traditional printmaking and comic production, noting visual art has always been collaborative and iterative.
Reconstruction of 1962 debut
A historic reconstruction of Lichtenstein's 1962 debut exhibition at the Leo Castelli Gallery is a centerpiece, scaled up by 15% to accommodate museum crowds. Two paintings in the ensemble have not been publicly viewed for more than 30 years. The show includes works like Look Mickey (1961), Masterpiece (1962), and Girl with Ball (1961).
It is also the first Lichtenstein retrospective to include his murals, with four murals in total, all painted by hand by Da Corte's studio team. Onli emphasizes that Lichtenstein's work was "so emphatically handmade," contrasting with machine-made appearances in photographs.
'Roy Lichtenstein: Like New' is on display at the Whitney Museum in New York until 10 May 2027.
