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Roy Lichtenstein

Greene Street Mural

September 10–October 17, 2015
555 West 24th Street, New York

Installation view Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Rob McKeever

Works Exhibited

Roy Lichtenstein, Still Life with Red Cord, 1983 Oil and Magna on canvas, 48 × 40 inches (121.9 × 101.6 cm)© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein, Still Life with Red Cord, 1983

Oil and Magna on canvas, 48 × 40 inches (121.9 × 101.6 cm)
© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

About

In collaboration with the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, Gagosian New York is pleased to announce Roy Lichtenstein: Greene Street Mural.

In December 1983, Lichtenstein created Greene Street Mural, an unprecedented site-specific and temporary wall painting measuring 18 × 96 1/2 feet at the Castelli Gallery at 142 Greene Street. In accordance with Lichtenstein’s intention, the work was destroyed after the six-week show. More than thirty years later, Gagosian will present to a new generation of viewers a full-scale painted replica of the original work, based on documentation from Lichtenstein’s studio and produced under the supervision of his former studio assistant. In keeping with the momentous spirit of the original project, the replica will be destroyed at the close of the exhibition.

In Greene Street Mural, Lichtenstein layered pervasive images from his pop lexicon—marble-patterned composition notebooks, cartoonish brushstrokes, and Swiss cheese—with new motifs, including the Neo-Geo tropes of the Perfect/Imperfect paintings; faux woodblock shading patterns; and office items such as filing cabinets, envelopes, and folding chairs. Echoing the self-reflexive and art-historical juxtapositions of the Artist’s Studio paintings made during the same period, the mural conflates citations from Lichtenstein’s own oeuvre with references to Picasso and Brancusi, Art Deco motifs, and depictions of the Great Pyramids. This heady mix epitomizes Lichtenstein’s ability to absorb anything and everything that caught his eye into his constantly evolving artistic idiom.

Related source material, drawings, and studies will accompany the panoramic mural, in addition to paintings and sculptures of the period, among which are works from the companion exhibition that was held at Castelli Gallery at 420 West Broadway from December 1983 to January 1984.

An accompanying, fully illustrated publication will include an essay by art historian and curator Camille Morineau, rarely seen photography by Bob Adelman that captured the creation of the original Greene Street Mural, and extensive documentation relating to Lichtenstein’s twelve realized and four unrealized murals.

Greene Street Mural

Greene Street Mural

Jack Cowart, Executive Director of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, and Rob McKeever, a former assistant to Lichtenstein, recall the making of the original Greene Street Mural.

Time-lapse: Greene Street Mural

Behind the Art
Time-lapse: Greene Street Mural

More than thirty years after its creation, Gagosian presents a full-scale painted replica of the original Greene Street Mural by Roy Lichtenstein, based on documentation from the artist’s studio and produced by sign painters under the supervision of his former studio assistant.

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.