HOW THE WHITNEY’S “ROY LICHTENSTEIN: LIKE NEW” REFRAMES A POP ART ICON
More than sixty years after Roy Lichtenstein helped redefine contemporary art, the Whitney Museum of American Art is taking a fresh look at one of Pop Art’s most influential figures. Opening October 11, 2026, “Roy Lichtenstein: Like New“ brings together more than 130 works spanning the artist’s career, examining how his exploration of repetition, mass media, and image-making continues to resonate in an era dominated by digital culture.
Rather than presenting Lichtenstein solely through the lens of his instantly recognizable comic book paintings, the exhibition traces his evolving investigation into perception, authorship, simulation, and visual reproduction across six decades. Featuring paintings, drawings, prints, collages, sculpture, and film, the exhibition positions his work as an ongoing examination of how images circulate, transform, and acquire new meanings over time.
While Lichtenstein became synonymous with Pop Art through his bold appropriations of comic strips and commercial printing aesthetics, “Like New” argues that his practice anticipated many of the questions surrounding image culture that define the twenty-first century. In today’s world of endless reposts, filters, AI-generated imagery, and algorithm-driven feeds, the exhibition suggests that Lichtenstein’s fascination with copying and repetition feels more relevant than ever.
Among the highlights are many of the artist’s most celebrated works, including “Look Mickey” (1961), “Girl with Ball” (1961), “Masterpiece” (1962), “Drowning Girl” (1963), “Happy Tears” (1964), “Little Big Painting” (1965), “Rouen Cathedral, Set III” (1968–69), and “Artist’s Studio ‘The Dance'” (1974).
One of the exhibition’s most significant moments is the reconstruction of Roy Lichtenstein’s landmark 1962 debut exhibition at Leo Castelli Gallery. For the first time, all eight paintings from that historic presentation will be reunited, allowing visitors to experience the installation much as audiences encountered it during one of the defining moments in postwar American art.
The exhibition also includes recreations of three large-scale murals, among them a nearly 96-foot-long version of “Greene Street Mural” (1983), alongside an outdoor presentation of “Girl in Window” (1964) realized by artist and guest curator Alex Da Corte. Works by Louise Lawler, Richard Pettibone, and Sturtevant further expand the conversation, illustrating Lichtenstein’s lasting influence on artists exploring appropriation, replication, and the afterlife of images.
Organized by Meg Onli, the Whitney’s Nancy and Fred Poses Curator, together with guest curator Alex Da Corte, the exhibition reframes Lichtenstein as more than a defining Pop artist. Instead, it presents him as an artist whose work anticipated many of today’s conversations surrounding originality, media circulation, and the instability of visual culture.
Member previews will run October 8–10 ahead of the exhibition’s public opening on October 11 at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, where “Roy Lichtenstein: Like New” will offer a new perspective on an artist whose work continues to shape how we understand images today.
