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Roy Lichtenstein

Nudes

September 15–October 3, 1998
Beverly Hills

Roy Lichtenstein, Two Nudes, 1995 Oil and magna on canvas, 84 × 120 inches (213.4 × 304.8 cm)

Roy Lichtenstein, Two Nudes, 1995

Oil and magna on canvas, 84 × 120 inches (213.4 × 304.8 cm)

About

Gagosian is pleased to present an exhibition of large-scale paintings by the late artist Roy Lichtenstein. This body of work, completed during the 1990s, solely depicts the female nude.

The highly sexualized portrayal of women has been of paramount importance to Lichtenstein’s work since his earliest Pop paintings. The actual nude, however, appeared as a subject most prominently in works made during the artist’s last decade. In several instances, later paintings like Nude with Beach Ball (1994) clearly refer to works from the 1960s, such as Girl with Ball (1961).

Comparative pictures such as these emphasize the unique characteristics of Lichtenstein’s later paintings: larger areas of white, and a palette of extremely clear and vivid color. In the classic Pop paintings, the allover Benday dots mimicked the crude techniques of tabloid illustration. In the later paintings, the dots appear in cloud-like patches that express the effervescence of space and form.

The Nudes inhabit the ether of virtual reality more than the material world of comic books and cartoons. The intense and clear white ground and the overall impression of infinite space and “air” are in sympathy with the literal stripping of the female subjects to reveal their blatant and uncomplicated erotic availability. In these paintings, the hyper-world of virtual space opens an infinity of carnal and imaginative license and desire.

Dorothy Lichtenstein and Irving Blum stand next to each other in front of Roy Lichtenstein's studio in Southampton, New York

In Conversation
Irving Blum and Dorothy Lichtenstein

In celebration of the centenary of Roy Lichtenstein’s birth, Irving Blum and Dorothy Lichtenstein sat down to discuss the artist’s life and legacy, and the exhibition Lichtenstein Remembered curated by Blum at Gagosian, New York.

Alison McDonald, Daniel Belasco, and Scott Rothkopf next to each other in front of a live audience

In Conversation
Daniel Belasco and Scott Rothkopf on Roy Lichtenstein

Gagosian and the Art Students League of New York hosted a conversation on Roy Lichtenstein with Daniel Belasco, executive director of the Al Held Foundation, and Scott Rothkopf, senior deputy director and chief curator of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Organized in celebration of the centenary of the artist’s birth and moderated by Alison McDonald, chief creative officer at Gagosian, the discussion highlights multiple perspectives on Lichtenstein’s decades-long career, during which he helped originate the Pop art movement. The talk coincides with Lichtenstein Remembered, curated by Irving Blum and on view at Gagosian, New York, through October 21.

Steve Martin playing a banjo

Roy and Irving

Actor and art collector Steve Martin reflects on the friendship and professional partnership between Roy Lichtenstein and art dealer Irving Blum.

Black-and-white photograph: Donald Marron, c. 1984.

Donald Marron

Jacoba Urist profiles the legendary collector.

Alexander Calder poster for McGovern, 1972, lithograph

The Art History of Presidential Campaign Posters

Against the backdrop of the 2020 US presidential election, historian Hal Wert takes us through the artistic and political evolution of American campaign posters, from their origin in 1844 to the present. In an interview with Quarterly editor Gillian Jakab, Wert highlights an array of landmark posters and the artists who made them.

Dorothy Lichtenstein in Roy Lichtenstein’s Southampton studio. Photo by Kasia Wandycz/Paris Match via Getty Images

In Conversation
Dorothy Lichtenstein

Dorothy Lichtenstein sits down with Derek Blasberg to discuss the changes underway at the Lichtenstein Foundation, life in the 1960s, and what brought her to—and kept her in—the Hamptons.