The Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan announced last week that Dorothy Lichtenstein had donated Roy Lichtenstein's studio to the museum's Independent Study Program to become its new headquarters.
The studio building is four blocks north of the museum at 741/745 Washington Street. "Thanks to Roy, this building has been the site for artistic and intellectual endeavors, both for himself and for the people who have long gathered here," Ms. Lichtenstein, the artist's widow, said in a release.
In addition to a relationship with the museum that dates to 1965, Lichtenstein, who died in 1997 and had a studio and residence in Southampton beginning in 1970, led seminars in the Independent Study Program. "I can't think of a more meaningful use for the studio than for the Whitney to carry his legacy far into the future, building on and expanding the role of the foundation in supporting contemporary art and artists," Ms. Lichtenstein said.
Plans to leave the studio to the museum, as well as a collection of Lichtenstein's art, have been in place for several years. In a Gagosian Quarterly journal from 2018, Ms. Lichtenstein said her husband never wanted his own museum and that she loved the work of Edward Hopper, whose estate was left to the Whitney, resulting in an extensive collection.
That year, the museum and the Lichtenstein Foundation established the Roy Lichtenstein Study Collection for the exhibition, conservation, and research of the artist's work. The museum has received more than 400 works so far, such as paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, and artist photographs, in addition to study, research, and reference materials. There are also more than 500 photographs by Harry Shunk and Janos Kender of artists like Gordon Matta-Clark, Keith Sonnier, John Baldessari, Mel Bochner, Dan Graham, Robert Morris, Richard Serra, Lawrence Weiner, and William Wegman, all of whom worked and performed at Pier 18 on the Hudson River, near the current site of the Whitney.
At that point, the museum was already using the studio for events. "I mean, I'd like to see the studio become part of the Whitney -- not a Lichtenstein museum, but in whatever way it would be useful to them," Ms. Lichtenstein said then.
In the release, Adam D. Weinberg, the Whitney's director, said the museum was "excited to keep Roy's legacy vital through the programs of our Independent Study Program, which nurtures the next generation of artists, curators, and scholars."
The program was founded in 1968 and has been operated out of a number of leased spaces. For more than a half century Ron Clark has served as its director. The faculty has included Benjamin Buchloh, Douglas Crimp, Hal Foster, Isaac Julien, Mary Kelly, Barbara Kruger, Laura Mulvey, Craig Owens, Yvonne Rainer, and Martha Rosler.
Some of its notable grads are the artists Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Jenny Holzer, Glenn Ligon, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Julian Schnabel. It has helped mold museum directors like Richard Armstrong and Lisa Phillips and influential critics and art historians such as Miwon Kwon, Pamela M. Lee, and Roberta Smith. The program has additionally shaped a group of respected and groundbreaking curators.
According to the Whitney, the 9,000-square-foot studio building was constructed in 1912 as a metalworking shop. It was purchased by Lichtenstein in 1987, when the surrounding area was on its way to becoming a destination for hip restaurants and edgy bars, but long before the Meatpacking District became the high-end commercial zone of boutiques, chic hotels, and even trendier boites of more recent years. It served as both a residence and studio from 1988 to 1997. Since the artist's death the building has housed the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, whose work on preparing the artist's archives and catalogue raisonne is winding down.
The artist's relationship with the museum began in 1965 when he was included in two group exhibitions, what was known as its Annual Exhibition and "A Decade of American Drawings, 1955-1965." From there, his work was represented in dozens of shows.
The Whitney will move the study program into the building in the summer of 2023, the same year of Lichtenstein's centennial. When not in use for that purpose, the building will be used for teacher training and teen programs.
