Roy Lichtenstein Chronology: the 1970s
1970
March 15-Sept. Two seascape films by R.L. are shown, using 35mm rear-screen
projectors, in an exhibition organized by Maurice Tuchman at the American
Pavilion of Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan.
R.L. finds house in Southampton, where he sets up his studio and a permanent
residence the following year.
April. Smithson creates Spiral Jetty, a 1,500-foot-long spiral made of black
basalt, limestone rocks, and earth, on the Great Salt Lake in Utah.
May. New York museums close for one day as a response to New York Art Strike
Against War, Racism, Fascism, Sexism, and Repression, organized by the Art
Workers Coalition.
Oct. R.L. completes final work on his drawing for a very large mural-12 by
245 feet on four continuous walls-for the University of Düsseldorf's School
of Medicine. His assistant Carlene Meeker executes the mural assisted by
several students from the university.
Finch College Museum of Art in New York presents the first major exhibition
of Art Deco works, organized by Elayne H. Varian. Warhol lends objects and
furniture from his personal collection.
Nov. 18. R.L.'s Big Painting No. 6 sells at auction to German art dealer
Rudolf Zwirner for $75,000, the highest price yet paid for the work of any
living artist.
1971
R.L. begins Entablature series in black and white. Starts to size and prime
his own canvases.
March 13-April 3. R.L.'s Mirrors exhibited publicly for the first time, at
Leo Castelli Gallery.
May 10-Aug. 29. R.L.'s two seascape films are shown at the Art and
Technology exhibition at the L.A. County Museum of Art.
May 12. R.L. is inducted as a fellow into the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences (Boston).
Sept. Leo Castelli moves his gallery to 420 West Broadway in SoHo.
Nov. Robert Pincus-Witten coins the term Post-Minimalism in a review in
Artforum to refer to works by Hesse.
1972
Publication of first monograph on R.L.'s paintings and sculptures, by
Waldman.
R.L.begins Still Life series (which he continues through 1975). Increasingly
uses diagonal stripes in place of Benday dots.
Begins to incorporate quotations of his own work in his Still Life
paintings; also begins to incorporate references to works by Henri Matisse.
1973
R.L.begins series of trompe-l'oeil and Cubist Still Lifes, which include his
first use of faux-woodgrain pattern.
Autumn. Begins Artist's Studio series (which he continues through 1974) and
incorporates quotations of some of his early 1960s paintings and drawings
into some of the compositions.
Creates several paintings showing the influence of De Stijl and Russian
Constructivism.
Oct. 18. At Sotheby's, Robert and Ethel Scull auction 50 Pop art works from
their collection to a packed house of dealers, collectors, and artists.
Johns's work Painted Bronze, 1960, sets record for the highest price paid
for the work of any living American artist.
1974
R.L.begins to paint his first works influenced by Italian Futurism.
Begins new series of Entablatures, using metallic colors and mixing sand
with paint to highlight surface texture.
May. Beuys visits New York, where he performs I Like America and America
Likes Me at René Block Ltd. (409 West Broadway).
Sept. R.L.'s Modern Head, a 30-foot-high sculpture in metal, wood, and
polyurethane made at Lippincott, a foundry in Connecticut, is assembled on a
site in the Santa Anita Fashion Park in Arcadia, California. (It is removed
in October 1988).
1975
R.L.begins series of paintings based on works by Purist artists
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret [Le Corbusier] and Amédée Ozenfant (which he
continues through 1976).
Graffiti artists Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, and
others gain instant art-world recognition after their works are shown in an
exhibition at Artists Space in New York.
1976
R.L.paints Office Still Lifes based on newspaper illustrations of office
items and business furniture.
Completes final series of Entablature Paintings.
Creates several self-portraits in Futurist style.
Warhol creates a silkscreen portrait of Lichtenstein.
1977
R.L.begins series of paintings based on works by Surrealist
artists-including Dalí, Ernst, and Magritte-and Surrealist works by Picasso.
Begins to make painted and patinated sculptures in bronze, with the
assistance of Carlos Ramos and in collaboration with two foundries,
Lippincott and Tallix, in Beacon, New York.
Creates large outdoor sculpture, Lamp, for Gilman Paper Company in St.
Mary's, Georgia.
Jenny Holzer begins to hang her Truisms, unsigned posters, throughout New
York.
April 26. R.L. receives Skowhegan Medal for Painting.
May 13. Is awarded Doctorate of Fine Arts from California Institute of the
Arts, Valencia.
June. BMW commissions R.L.to create an exterior design for their 3201 race
car, driven later in the year at Le Mans.
Oct. 18-Jan. 1, 1978. The Whitney Museum presents Johns retrospective.
1978
R.L.contributes cover design for catalogue to the Whitney Museum's
exhibition Art about Art, organized by Jean Lipman and Richard Marshall.
After its run at the Whitney Museum (July 19-Sept. 24), show travels to
three other venues.
Visits Los Angeles, where he sees Robert Gore Rifkind Collection of German
Expressionist graphic art.
Begins to feature North American Indian motifs in his works.
1979
Makes his last Surrealist-inspired works.
Begins German Expressionist-inspired works based on paintings and woodcuts
by artists such as Erich Heckel, Franz Marc, and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff.
Mermaid, R.L.'s first public sculpture commission, is dedicated and
installed at the Miami Beach Theatre for the Performing Arts.
March 16-June 17. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art exhibits Judy
Chicago's The Dinner Party, begun in 1974, a work created through the
efforts of more than 100 women.
May 23. R.L.is elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, New
York.
Nov. 2-Jan. 2, 1980. The Guggenheim Museum presents Beuys's first solo
retrospective in U.S., curated by Caroline Tisdall.