Lichtenstein Retrospective at the Art Institute of Chicago
July 10, 2012

CHICAGO—This summer, The Art Institute of Chicago is presenting a comprehensive retrospective of Roy Lichtenstein’s work. This is the first such exhibition since the artist’s death in 1997, and the show captures the energetic sense of fun that characterizes the pop-art icon’s interests and style.

Tracing Lichtenstein’s development as an artist, the retrospective includes nearly 170 works spanning his five-decade career from 1950-1997. Lichtenstein’s 1961 “Look Mickey,” greets visitors at the exhibition’s entrance. The painting opens the show perfectly—its cheerful red, blue, and yellow primary hues anticipate the colors of cartoon frames—even as its self-conscious brushstrokes speak of Lichtenstein’s emergence from an art scene obsessed with the application of paint. The carefully curated show also examines Lichtenstein’s approach to subject and scale, connecting the artist’s move toward larger canvases with his 1962 transition to stencil-drawn dots. With lesser-known works like the Monet-inspired “Rouen Cathedral Set V” (1969) and “Laocoon,” (1988) also on display, visitors have the opportunity to consider Lichtenstein’s art historical critique. “Our aim with this exhibition is to explore the full range of absorbing contradictions at the heart of Lichtenstein’s work—starting with the paradox that Lichtenstein systematically dismantled the history of modern art while becoming a fixture in that canon,” explained the Department of Contemporary Art at the Art Institute. “Lichtenstein, we hope to show, was a profoundly radical artist with a lasting impact on the history of 20th-century art.”

After the retrospective closes in Chicago September 3rd, it will travel to the National Gallery in Washington D.C. and the Tate Modern in London, before its final show at Paris’s Centre Pompidou in 2013.

Image via The Lichtenstein Foundation