Roy Lichtenstein: The Black-and-White Drawings, 1961–1968, at the Morgan Library and Museum

Roy Lichtenstein, Bread and Jam, 1963, graphite pencil, pochoir and lithographic
rubbing crayon. Courtesy Sonnabend Collection © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein, Bratatat, 1962, frottage and graphite pencil.
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The Ethel Morrison Van Berlip Fund.
© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein: The Black-and-White Drawings, 1961–1968, at the Morgan Library and Museum Roy Lichtenstein (1923–1997) has long been considered one of the keyfigures in the development of Pop Art. His signature brightly colored paintings are cornerstones of museumcollections the world over. His subject matter drawn from visual fragments of popular culture is emblematicof an entire movement.

September 24, 2010 – January 2, 2011

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Source: Morgan Library and Museum
An extraordinary new exhibition organized by The MorganLibrary & Museum, opening September 24, presents animportant series of large-scale, black-and-white works as a groupfor the first time and examines Lichtenstein’s less knownexploration of the medium of drawing. Created during the earlyand mid-1960s, the fifty-five drawings on view offer a revealingwindow into the development of Lichtenstein’s art, as he beganfor the first time to appropriate commercial illustrations andcomic strips as subject matter and experimented stylistically withsimulating commercial techniques of reproduction—the famous Benday dots. The work represents anessential and original contribution to Pop Art as well as to the history of drawing. Roy Lichtenstein: The Blackand-White Drawings, 1961–1968, is on view through January 2, 2011.

“The Morgan is delighted to be the first museum to bring together this important group of drawings byRoy Lichtenstein,” said William M. Griswold, director. “The work offers visual evidence of a great artistgoing in a radical new direction and using the medium of drawing to help him find his way. The MorganLibrary & Museum is committed to the study of drawings and their role in the creative process, andLichtenstein’s black-and-white works are superb examples of this.”

ROY LICHTENSTEIN IN THE EARLY 1960S
The year 1961 was a momentous period of transformation forRoy Lichtenstein. Thirty-eight years old and regularlyexhibiting in New York since 1951, he was by manymeasures already a midcareer artist, working primarily inpainting in Cubist and Abstract Expressionist styles. But in1961 his art made a radical departure from these precedents.Influenced by the happenings staged by Allan Kaprow,George Segal, Claes Oldenburg, and others, whichincorporated everyday objects and popular culture,Lichtenstein turned to an entirely new imagery culled fromthe contemporary world of advertisements and comic booksand adopted the graphic techniques of commercialillustration. The exhibition demonstrates how the act ofdrawing took on a central role in his practice at this stage,both as a favored medium in its own right, as well as apowerful means of translating and transforming his sources of pop iconography