Artist-in-Residence

Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein's work titled Untitled Shirt, object documentation.
Roy Lichtenstein, in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, Untitled, 1979. Pigment on silk sateen. 30 x 36 inches (76.2 x 91.44 cm). Edition of 100. Commissioned by Artists Space, New York. Collection of The Fabric Workshop and Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo credit: Aaron Igler.

Roy Lichtenstein fashioned his 1979 Untitled shirt in collaboration with FWM and to benefit Artists Space, a not-for-profit visual arts organization in New York City. Produced as an edition of 100, the shirt was silkscreen printed with pigment on silk sateen and sewn into a basic shirt design, based on the artist’s specifications.

A non-representational print, the design of the shirt is unmistakably Lichtenstein. His signature Benday dots, stripes, and palette of primary colors comprise the abstract composition of diagonal bands of red, blue, yellow, black, and white. Lichtenstein was sensitive to the functionality of a shirt, as the stripes of color wrap around the body, alluding to the three-dimensional, curving form of its potential wearer. Made from silk, the drape of the shirt, too, emphasizes the dynamic play of the diagonal bands of color, which ripple and flow at the slightest movement.

Artist Bio

American, 1923–1997. Lived and worked in New York, NY. 

Roy Lichenstein was a prominent member of the American Pop Art movement. His satirical paintings and prints were inspired by everyday objects and the consumerism of American culture. By the 1960s, Lichtenstein had developed his signature style, introducing comic-strip figures, Benday dots, and speech balloons into his work. Born in Manhattan, Lichtenstein began his undergraduate studies in 1940 at Ohio State University but was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943. He returned to continue his studies, completing both his BFA and MFA at OSU. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum organized a major traveling retrospective of Lichtenstein’s work in 1969 and another in 1993. Late in his career, in 1995, Lichtenstein was awarded the National Medal of Arts. His work has been the subject of hundreds of exhibitions around his world, including solo exhibitions presented at Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Orsanmichele, Florence, Italy; Douglas Hyde Gallery at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; among others. Lichtenstein’s work resides in international collections that include the Art Institute of Chicago, IL; British Museum, London, UK; Göteborg Museum of Art, Sweden; Ludwig Museum of International Art, Beijing, China; and Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain, among many others.