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Roy Lichtenstein

Perfect/Imperfect

September 28–December 7, 2002
Beverly Hills

Roy Lichtenstein, Imperfect Painting, 1987 Oil and magna on canvas, 33 ¾ × 24 inches (85.7 × 61 cm)© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein, Imperfect Painting, 1987

Oil and magna on canvas, 33 ¾ × 24 inches (85.7 × 61 cm)
© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein, Two Studies for Imperfect Painting, 1987 Colored pencil on graph paper, 8 ½ × 11 inches (21.6 × 27.9 cm)© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein, Two Studies for Imperfect Painting, 1987

Colored pencil on graph paper, 8 ½ × 11 inches (21.6 × 27.9 cm)
© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein, Drawing for Perfect Painting, 1986 Graphite and colored pencils on graph paper, 8 ½ × 11 inches (21.6 × 27.9 cm)© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein, Drawing for Perfect Painting, 1986

Graphite and colored pencils on graph paper, 8 ½ × 11 inches (21.6 × 27.9 cm)
© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein, Perfect Painting, 1978 Oil and magna on canvas, 40 × 50 inches (101.6 × 127 cm)© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein, Perfect Painting, 1978

Oil and magna on canvas, 40 × 50 inches (101.6 × 127 cm)
© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein, Imperfect Painting, 1987 Oil and magna on canvas, 32 ¾ × 27 inches (83.2 × 68.6 cm)© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein, Imperfect Painting, 1987

Oil and magna on canvas, 32 ¾ × 27 inches (83.2 × 68.6 cm)
© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

About

Gagosian is pleased to present the first comprehensive exhibition dedicated to the paintings, drawings, sculpture, and prints of Roy Lichtenstein’s Perfect and Imperfect Paintings series. This exhibition will also inaugurate the newly expanded Beverly Hills gallery, designed by Richard Meier & Partners.

This series began in 1985 with the production of “perfect” paintings, abstract compositions of intersecting triangles, large planes of color, and signature dots all fitting neatly within the confines of a rectangular picture plane. The Imperfect paintings that followed, however, broke free from the rectilinear shape of their predecessors; instead of making the triangles fit, the edges project beyond the limits of the canvas. Lichtenstein would often use a similar composition for a Perfect and for an Imperfect painting, where only the slight torque of a line created an entirely new work.

This exhibition has been made possible with the help of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, Dorothy Lichtenstein, and the Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. A color catalogue with an essay by Yve-Alain Bois will accompany the exhibition.

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.