Half Century Before AI There Was Roy Lichtenstein

Skip to commentsPublished: October 24, 20261 minute0 comments

Earlier this month the Roy Lichtenstein: Like New exhibit opened at the Whitney Museum in N.Y., N.Y.

Jamie Martinez for Arte Fuse toured the exhibit and shares his thoughts.

“At first glance, and on my first visit, the exhibition seemed a bit flat. But as I walked through the fifth floor, with a few pieces on the third, it started to feel more like being inside a comic book and becoming part of the story. The exhibition shows how Lichtenstein developed into the artist we know today, moving between popular culture, painting, sculpture, and art history. What people sometimes overlook is how much he relied on appropriation, especially in painting, to challenge the conversation about who owns an image and what happens when it is taken out of its original context.”

Yes, decades before AI began scraping cartoon styles Roy Lichtenstein was “appropriating” comic art.

Accompanying Martinez’s review Arte Fuse presents a video preview of the exhibit. Some comparisons:

The exhibit screenshots are from ArteFuse, the comparison frames are fromThe LichtensteinProject.

More on Lichtenstein plagiarism of comic art at artnet and The Guardian and The Boar and downthetubes …

Lichtenstein Artwork © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein