Roy Lichtenstein: History in the Making, 1948–1960

Co-organized by the Colby College Museum of Art and the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Roy Lichtenstein: History in the Making, 1948–1960 is the first major museum exhibition to investigate the early work of one of the most celebrated American artists of the twentieth century. It tells the overlooked story of Lichtenstein’s formative years and establishes a deeper understanding of postwar American art.

Featuring about 90 works, many of which are on public view for the first time, this unprecedented exhibition includes examples from all of the artist’s mediums–painting, sculpture, drawing, and printmaking–and demonstrates the formal invention and provocative nature of Lichtenstein’s early production.

Roy Lichtenstein: History in the Making, 1948–1960 reveals how Pop art emerged in dialogue with European modernism, American history painting, and a diversity of vernacular sources. Before 1960, Lichtenstein’s art was filled with characteristic humor and evoked many of the themes that would become synonymous with his later career.