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Roy Lichtenstein Chronology
By Clare Bell (with additional content provided by the Lichtenstein Foundation)
copyright The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation 1993/1998
1923
Oct. 27. Roy Fox Lichtenstein is born in Manhattan at Flower Hospital on
64th Street and Eastern Boulevard [now York Avenue], to Milton (1893-1946)
and Beatrice (née Werner; 1896-1991). His father, who was born in Brooklyn,
is a real-estate broker for the Garage Realty Company. His mother, who was
born in New Orleans, is a homemaker. They reside on the Upper West Side of
Manhattan at 1457 Broadway (at 96th Street) until they move to 305 West 86th
Street, where R.L. spends his childhood years.
1924
Oct. Publication of André Breton's Le Manifeste du Surréalisme (Manifesto of
Surrealism) in Paris, marking the official beginning of the Surrealist
movement.
Nov. 26. George Segal is born in Manhattan.
1925
April. The Bauhaus, an experimental school for the arts founded in 1919
under the direction of Walter Gropius, moves from Weimar to Dessau after
severe harassment by the new right-wing regional government.Its faculty
includes such major artists as Josef Albers, Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee,
and Oskar Schlemmer.
Oct. 22. Ernest Milton Rauschenberg is born in Port Arthur, Texas. (He
begins to use the name Bob starting in 1957 and eventually adopts the name
Robert.)
1926
Jan. Cahiers d'Art is first published in Paris. Founded by Christian Zervos,
the magazine features artists of the European avant-garde and has wide
international distribution.
Aug. 15. Willem de Kooning (born in 1904 in Rotterdam) arrives in Virginia
from Holland, a stowaway on the S.S. Shelly, and soon after sets up a studio
and residence in Hoboken, New Jersey. (He moves to West 42nd Street in New
York in 1927.)
1927
Aug. 23. Allan Kaprow is born in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Dec. 17. R.L.'s sister Renée is born.
Dec. 27. Albert Eugene Gallatin, a collector and artist, opens Gallery of
Living Art in New York's Greenwich Village. Gallatin frequently visits
artists in Paris (including Joan Miró, Piet Mondrian, and Pablo Picasso) and
buys their works for his gallery.
1928-36
R.L. attends kindergarten near 104th Street and West End Avenue and grades 1
through 7 at P.S. 9 (84th Street and West End Avenue).
1928
Aug. 6. Andrew Warhola is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (He begins to
use the surname Warhol in 1949.)
Sept. 13. Robert Clark is born in New Castle, Indiana. (He replaces his
surname with the name of his home state early in his career.)
1929
Jan. 28. Claes Oldenburg is born in Stockholm, Sweden. (His family settles
in Chicago in 1934.)
Nov. 7-Dec. 7. Alfred H. Barr, Jr., organizes First Loan Exhibition:
Cézanne, Gauguin, Seurat, Van Gogh for the opening of the Museum of Modern
Art (MoMA) in New York (730 Fifth Avenue).
1920s
R.L. develops a strong interest in drawing and science and spends time
designing model airplanes. Listens to radio shows including "Flash Gordon"
and "Mandrake the Magician."
1930
May 15. Jasper Johns is born in Augusta, Georgia.
1931
Feb. 23. Tom Wesselmann is born in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Nov. 15-Dec. 5. The Wadsworth Atheneum (Hartford) presents Newer
Super-Realism, organized by A. Everett Austin. The first important
exhibition of Surrealist work mounted in the U.S., it features works by
Salvador Dalí, Giorgio de Chirico, Max Ernst, André Masson, Miró, Picasso,
and others.
Nov. 18-Jan. 2, 1932. Under Director Juliana Force, the Whitney Museum of
American Art (New York; 8 West 8th Street) mounts its first show, Opening
Exhibition/Part I of the Permanent Collection: Painting and Sculpture.
1932
Jan. 9-29. Julien Levy Gallery (602 Madison Avenue) presents Surréalisme,
the first major exhibition in New York of Surrealist art.
MoMA moves to 11 West 53rd Street.
1933
July 29. The Bauhaus, which had moved to Berlin nine months earlier, closes
after conditions imposed by the Nazis make operation impossible.
Oct. German-born Hans Hofmann opens his School of Fine Arts in New York (137
East 57th Street; it moves to 52 West 9th Street in 1936, then to 52 West
8th Street in 1938).
Nov. 28. Josef Albers arrives in North Carolina with his wife, Anni, to begin his
new teaching position at the recently opened experimental school, Black
Mountain College.
Nov. 29. James Rosenquist is born in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
1935
June 16. James Dine is born in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Aug. Works Projects Administration/Federal Art Project (W.P.A./F.A.P.) is
established as one of Roosevelt's New Deal relief projects, providing income
for many artists, including de Kooning, Arshile Gorky, and Jackson Pollock.
(The name is changed to Works Progress Administration in 1939.)
David Gascoyne's A Short Survey of Surrealism, the first English-language
monograph on the movement, is published in London.
James Thrall Soby's After Picasso is published in New York. It is the first
book on Surrealism published in the U.S.
1936
R.L. begins 8th grade at Franklin School for Boys, a private school located
at 18 West 89th Street in Manhattan.
Dec. 9-Jan. 17, 1937. Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism exhibition is held at
MoMA, organized by Barr. One section features comparative materials,
including commercial art, folk art, scientific objects, and art by children
and the insane.
Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung publishes "The Work of Art in the Age of
Mechanical Reproduction," German critic Walter Benjamin's influential essay
(written in 1935) concerning the role of art in an age of mass
communication.
1937
Jan. 8-9. Picasso creates two satirical etchings, entitled Dream and Lie of
Franco, each divided into nine panels like some of the comic strips in
French newspapers of the period.
Feb. John Graham's book System and Dialectics of Art is published in Paris
(and later in the year in New York, in an English-language edition). It
explores the role of accident and the unconscious in the creative process,
automatic writing, improvisation, and ancient art, and later becomes an
important influence on the Abstract Expressionists.
July 12. Picasso presents his 26-foot-long mural Guernica at the Spanish
Republican Pavilion of the Paris World's Fair.
R.L.enrolls in Saturday morning watercolor classes at Parsons School of
Design in Manhattan (66 Fifth Avenue).
1938
Jan.-Feb. Breton and poet Paul Éluard organize Exposition internationale du
surréalisme at the Galerie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Lining the entranceway
to the exhibition is the "Surrealist Street," which consists of female
mannequins outfitted by Jean Arp, Dalí, Marcel Duchamp, Ernst, Marcel Jean,
Miró, Man Ray, Masson, and others.
1939
May 31. The Museum of Non-Objective Painting (New York; 24 East 54th Street)
opens under the directorship of Hilla Rebay von Ehrenwiesen, featuring works
by Rudolf Bauer, Juan Gris, Kandinsky, Fernand Léger, and Picasso.
Autumn. Partisan Review publishes Clement Greenberg's article "Avant-Garde
and Kitsch."
Nov. 15-Jan. 7, 1940. MoMA presents Picasso: Forty Years of His Art, curated
by Barr.
1940
De Kooning begins his first Woman series.
June. R.L.graduates from Franklin.
July 1-Aug. 9. Attends painting class taught by Reginald Marsh at the Art
Students League (215 West 57th Street), painting directly from the model and
studying anatomical drawing and Renaissance techniques, such as glazing and
underpainting, applied to subjects of modern life.
Sept. View magazine premieres in New York; its editor is Charles Henri Ford.
Duchamp and Joseph Cornell later contribute cover designs.
Autumn. R.L. begins studies in fine arts at Ohio State University and takes
first drawing classes with Prof. Hoyt L. Sherman.
Oct. Mondrian arrives in New York.
Early Nov. Man Ray, who had been living in Paris since 1921, returns to U.S.
and settles in Hollywood.
1941
Jan. 22-May 27. MoMA presents Indian Art of the United States, organized by
Frederic H. Douglas and René d'Harnoncourt.
July 14. Ernst arrives in New York via Lisbon with Peggy Guggenheim. In
December, they marry.
1942
R.L.resides at 1968 Iuka Avenue in Columbus.
Makes paintings that are copies of works by Picasso (such as Portrait of
Gertrude Stein, 1906) and Georges Braque.
Feb. 9-28. Mondrian has his first solo exhibition in New York, at Valentine
Gallery (55 East 57th Street).
June 25. Duchamp arrives in New York from Paris and stays briefly with
Ernst. (In 1943, he sets up a studio and residence at 210 West 14th Street,
and in 1959 he moves to 28 West 10th Street.)
Oct. 14-Nov. 7. First Papers of Surrealism exhibition is held in New York at
the Reid Mansion (451 Madison Avenue), with works by Arp, William Baziotes,
Alexander Calder, Ernst, Klee, Miró, Robert Motherwell, Picasso, and others,
and an installation by Duchamp that fills the exhibition space with string,
like an enormous spiderweb.
Oct. 20. Peggy Guggenheim opens Art of This Century in New York
(30 West 57th Street), with gallery spaces designed by Frederick Kiesler.
Over five years, the gallery mounts solo exhibitions by Baziotes, Hofmann,
Motherwell, Pollock, Richard Pousette-Dart, Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still, and
others.
1943
The W.P.A. is officially disbanded.
Feb. R.L. is drafted into U.S. Army; he is inducted at Fort Dix in New
Jersey.
Feb. 7. Musician and composer John Cage performs at his début concert, at
MoMA, with a piece that involves musicians producing sounds using
unconventional objects.
March. R.L.begins basic training at Camp Hulen in Texas, an anti-aircraft
training base.
Winter. Enters engineering A.S.T.P. (Army Special Training Program) at De
Paul University in Chicago, where he takes classes in math and science for
two semesters before army cancels program.
1944
R.L.arrives at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi, for its
pilot-training program. Due to the enormous number of casualties in the
Battle of the Bulge and the consequent need for soldiers to replace them,
the program is terminated.
Reports for active duty in engineer battalion of 69th Infantry Division of
the 9th Army.
1945
Feb. R.L.'s division is shipped to England on the ship
Le Jeune. Overseas tour of duty includes stops in France and Belgium and
combat engagements in Germany.
During his time in the service, R.L. draws landscapes and portraits of
soldiers and other people in his sketchbooks.
March. Los Angeles County Museum of Art mounts a retrospective of Man Ray's
paintings, objects, and photographs.
Oct.-Nov. R.L. enrolls in history and French language classes at the Cité
Universitaire in Paris. His studies are interrupted after just a month and a
half, when he is furloughed to visit his father, who is extremely ill.
Returns to U.S. and reports to Fort Dix.
1946
Jan. R.L.'s father dies; later that month, he is discharged from the army as
Private First Class, with a medal for Meritorious Service.
Returns to Ohio State University to complete his degree under the G.I. Bill.
Attends painting classes taught by Sherman and begins to incorporate into
his own work the theories developed by Sherman in his "flash lab."
March 30. New Yorker critic Robert Coates coins the term Abstract
Expressionism.
May. Peggy Guggenheim closes Art of This Century and leaves New York for
Europe.
June. R.L. receives B.F.A. degree from Ohio State University.
Sept. 30-Oct. 19. Betty Parsons opens gallery in New York (15 East 57th
Street) with Northwest Coast Indian Painting, an exhibition organized by
Barnett Newman.
Autumn. R.L.enters graduate program at Ohio State University and joins Fine
Arts department as an instructor. Occasionally returns to New York and
begins to visit galleries, especially Charles Egan Gallery and Betty Parsons
Gallery on 57th Street. His work at the time is based on American genre
paintings, with recognizable subject matter, but the form is Cubist with
Expressionist overtones.
Dec. Hugo Gallery in New York (26 East 55th Street) shows Cornell's collaged
box constructions, some of which contain photographs of movie stars of the
day.
1947
De Kooning begins his second Woman series (which he continues until 1949).
Motherwell and Harold Rosenberg publish the first and only issue of
Possibilities, a periodical that includes statements by Newman, Pollock, and
others describing the impetus behind their works.
The Museum of Non-Objective Painting moves to a townhouse at 1071 Fifth
Avenue (at 88th Street).
Oct. Publication of Drawing by Seeing, a 62-page handbook by Sherman.
1948
March. Partisan Review publishes Clement Greenberg's article "The Decline of
Cubism," in which he declares that American art has finally broken with the
School of Paris and attained supremacy.
Autumn. At Still's suggestion, Baziotes, David Hare, Motherwell, and Rothko
form the Subjects of the Artist, a school in a loft at 35 East 8th Street,
with public lectures by artists.
Oct. Rauschenberg begins attending classes taught by Albers and others at
Black Mountain College.
Ellsworth Kelly begins studies at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where
he meets Jack Youngerman, French sculptor César [Baldaccini], and British
artist Eduardo Paolozzi.
1948-49
R.L.produces pastels, oils, and drawings. Subjects include musicians and
landscapes. Begins using fairy tales as subjects, and includes references to
"Beauty and the Beast" and Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
1949
After studying at the University of South Carolina in 1947-48, Johns moves
to New York and briefly attends a commercial-art school before being
drafted.
March. R.L. receives M.F.A. degree from Ohio State University. Resides at
394 15th Avenue in Columbus.
Spring. Julien Levy Gallery closes.
May. The Subjects of the Artist school closes. Tony Smith, a sculptor and
professor at New York University, reopens it as Studio 35, with Friday
evening lectures by artists and invited intellectuals, and with studio space
for New York University students during the week.
June 12. R.L.marries Isabel Wilson (whom he had met earlier at the
Ten-Thirty Gallery in Cleveland [1515 Euclid Avenue], where she is
co-director).
Summer. Warhol begins doing commercial work.
Aug. 1-31. R.L.in first group exhibition, at Chinese Gallery in New York (38
East 57th Street).
Aug. 8. Life magazine features an article on Pollock entitled "Is He the
Greatest Living Painter in the U.S.?"
Autumn. A group of New York School artists, including de Kooning and Jack
Tworkov, form the Club for discussions and socializing. It meets first at an
artist's studio and then in a rented loft at 39 East 8th Street.
Through the G.I. Bill, Robert Indiana begins classes at the School of the
Art Institute of Chicago.
Dec. 12-30. Ten-Thirty Gallery exhibits R.L.'s paintings with work by two
ceramists. Few of his works sell.
1949-50
Rauschenberg studies painting at the Art Students League.
The Chronology continues decade by decade through the links on the upper left of this page.