A Legacy Reimagined: Works from the Collection of Dorothy and Roy Lichtenstein is a celebration of Lichtenstein’s legendary status as a founder of the Pop movement and icon of Contemporary art. This exceptional trove of sculptures, paintings, drawings, collages and prints charts four decades of Lichtenstein’s career, capturing Lichtenstein’s profound engagement with his art historical forebears as well as modern-day visual culture—all through his signature visual vernacular. Over the course of his career, Lichtenstein engaged in a profound dialogue with art history’s giants, revisiting the canon through his own imagination. Ultimately, though, Lichtenstein not only reimagined these art historical giants, but also joined the pantheon of legends, as a singular force in the development of Contemporary art.
The exquisite collection of works presented here showcases Lichtenstein’s mastery across media, as a sculptor, painter, draftsman and printmaker, relentlessly innovating and expanding his practice. Throughout his prolific oeuvre, Lichtenstein quoted from the annals of art history—from the architecture of ancient Greece, the sleek geometry of Art Deco, the dreamscapes of the Surrealists, and the abstracted planes of the Cubists—as well as the graphic flair of modern advertising. Lichtenstein reinterpreted canonical art historical references with his unmistakable Ben-Day dots and comic-like aesthetic, which have become synonymous with Pop art itself. Challenging and redefining the means and meaning of artistic production in contemporary society, Lichtenstein created works which revolutionized the familiar and became icons in their own right.
These works were treasured in the Lichtenstein family’s collection for decades, gracing the walls of Lichtenstein’s numerous studios and, of course, appearing in some of the most iconic and enduring images of the artist at work. Their presentation at Replica Shoes ’s is brought closer to us through their presence in these remarkable archival photographs, which together trace Lichtenstein's many artistic developments and achievements throughout his life and career. Modern Painting Triptych II was photographed by Judy Ross alongside Lichtenstein in his studio on 190 Bowery. The first Modern Painting was created in 1966, beginning a series in which Lichtenstein’s unmistakable graphic vocabulary crystallizes into scarlet, yellow, and ultramarine geometry.
In 1993, Bob Adelman visited Lichtenstein’s studio, intimately capturing the artist’s practice as he completed his monumental Interiors paintings. In these photographs, Adelman captured the rich source material for Large Interior with Three Reflections (Mural Panel) (Study), including clippings of comic books and details of Lichtenstein’s own work. Filled with references from his 1962 Curtains and Swiss Cheese to his Cityscape and Imperfect Sculpture from the 1990s, the present work is a retrospective trove of Lichtenstein’s peerless artistry.
Peter David, George Perez, Tom Smith, et al. The Incredible Hulk, Vol. 1, Iss. 400, December 1992
Lichtenstein took inspiration from the visual language of comic books and their vibrant conflation of action and narrative. Here, the disembodied hands prying open the curtain, its owner concealed in a void of color, mirrors a scene from The Incredible Hulk comic from 1992 in which the character makes his suspenseful entrance.
Roy Lichtenstein, Grapefruit and Bananas I, 1972. Private Collection
Lichtenstein’s still lifes altered existing conceptions around the genre. Rather than build highly realistic and deep images of fruit, Lichtstein uses graphic lines and shadeless color, creating a completely smooth surface.
Roy Lichtenstein, Imperfect Sculpture, 1994. Private Collection. Sold at Replica Shoes ’s New York in November 2025 for $180,000
In an interior scene filled with representational references, a single object in each panel brings a delightful taste of Lichtenstein’s foray into abstraction.
Roy Lichtenstein, Blonde Waiting, 1964. Private Collection
Rescuing the comic trope of the damsel in distress and immortalizing her in his art, Lichtenstein challenged the tradition of the nude, replacing demure goddesses with blonde bombshells. Lichtenstein carried a fascination of the domestic sphere and the woman’s exile in the home, painting languid, bored, yet impossibly sensual women performing the dutiful task of a wife waiting for the return of her husband.
Roy Lichtenstein, Swiss Cheese, 1962. Private Collection
In its own right a figure in pop culture, the ubiquitous swiss cheese with its comically reliable circles feature prominently in Lichtenstein’s oeuvre. The artist painted a Swiss Cheese pattern over his studio elevator doors, and commissioned a cake in the form of a block of Swiss cheese for the 1994 Dada Ball at Webster Hall.
Tom Palmer, Steve Epting, Bill Oakley, et al. The Avengers, Vol. 1, Iss. 358, January 1993
For the framed work above the couch in the third panel, Lichtenstein reworks the Avenger Thundra, removing her headpiece and changing her hair and skin tone. Her red hair and green skin are also in the final Large Interior, though Lichtenstein puts her headpiece back in place.
Roy Lichtenstein, Cityscape, 1995. Private Collection
Lichtenstein built a variety of prototypes for his sculpture, Cityscape, each an experimentation in conveying the velocity of metal buildings as they shoot skyward. A grouping of skyscrapers sits on a side table in the present work, a playful minimization of these formidable urban beasts.
Simultaneously a vanguard of his generation and deeply reverent of the art historical canon, Lichtenstein effortlessly synthesized the vernacular of Modern masters as in his Cubist Still Life with Vase and Flowers. The ascendent composition takes the historic floral still life, once revolutionized by Pablo Picasso’s fractured gaze decades earlier, and once again casts it in a new light. The offering of this work at Replica Shoes ’s inaugural exhibition at the Breuer marks a poignant homecoming: the very site of the artist’s midcareer retrospective in 1980, staged by the Whitney Museum of American Art, in which Cubist Still Life with Vase and Flowers was exhibited.
Exhibited atop The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in the 2003 exhibition, Roy Lichtenstein on the Roof, Brushstrokes brings the velocity and energy of Lichtenstein’s visual language off the canvas and into the world. The soaring Brushstrokes sees the artist interrogating the act of creation implicit in all of art history: the caricature of the brushstroke, adapted from the artist’s celebrated Brushstroke paintings of the 1960s, transforms the building block of each painterly composition into a hyper-literal subject in its own right. The only other edition of the present work is the Portland Museum of Art, and other monumental Brushstroke sculptures are held in distinguished institutional collections such as Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico; The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C, among others. Ahead of the auction on 18 November, this exquisite monumental work will be on view at 3 World Trade Center (South West Corner), located at 175 Greenwich St, NY, NY 10007.
A Legacy Reimagined: Works from the Collection of Dorothy and Roy Lichtenstein presents extraordinary works from the icon of Pop himself. Paintings, works on paper, monumental sculpture and more come together this November in an offering that showcases Lichtenstein’s singular artistic output and generationally impactful influence. Truly a definition of what it means to be iconic and timeless, Lichtenstein’s vernacular transcends the bounds of his works, coming to represent the contemporary age itself.
