Roy Lichtenstein copied and re-created images from comic books and ads long before we could screenshot and crop on our phones. Co-curators Meg Onli and Alex Da Corte reflect on Roy Lichtenstein: Like New, the artist and native New Yorker’s first hometown retrospective in over thirty years.
What new meanings do Lichtenstein’s works take on today, in our image-saturated digital age? Onli and Da Corte describe processes (like copying) and techniques (dots!) the Pop artist used to create the works on view in the exhibition, some of which are being shown together for the first time.
Over a career that spanned more than fifty years, Lichtenstein challenged common understandings of what a handmade versus machine-made image looks like. On organizing this exhibition, Da Corte says, “This experience has reminded me that even the most commonplace, everyday, or populous image could be reconsidered, and that nothing is written in stone and can always be ‘like new.’”
Roy Lichtenstein: Like New is on view October 11, 2026–May 10, 2027, on the fifth floor of the Whitney Museum.
