Remembering Dorothy Lichtenstein
Dorothy Lichtenstein, wife of groundbreaking American artist Roy Lichtenstein, was a proud patron and philanthropist of the arts and friend of Village Preservation. She was born on October 26, 1939, and died at age 84 on July 4th, 2024.
Brooklyn-born Dorothy Herzka grew up in Crown Heights and attended Midwood High School. After college, she moved to Manhattan to work at Bianchini Gallery, on the Upper East Side, where she would meet her future husband, groundbreaking American artist, Roy Lichtenstein, in 1964. They married four years later.
They were married from 1968 until Roy’s death 1997. Upon his passing, Dorothy founded the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, with a mission to “facilitate public access to the work of Roy Lichtenstein and the art and artists of his time; to create a catalogue raisonné of all known Lichtenstein works; and to share information which could assist the development and education of the next generations of curators, critics and scholars concerning the artist Roy Lichtenstein.”
In October 2023, Village Preservation, in conjunction with the Whitney Museum of American Art, placed a historic plaque at 741-45 Washington Street (near Bethune Street) marking the location of the former Lichtenstein home and studio. Dorothy’s vision was to cease operations of the Foundation by 2026, a winding-down process that began in 2018 when it began distributing its collection to cultural institutions such as The Whitney Museum of American Art and the Smithsonian Archives of American Art. In addition to giving away art and archival material, she also donated the building itself to the Whitney.
Dorothy spoke at the event (watch the 20-minute ceremony here), noting how much the neighborhood has changed since they purchased the building in 1987 and her passion for turning the studio into the new home of the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program to cultivate a new generation of artists. She declined the Whitney’s offer to rename the program in her honor.
In addition to serving as President of the foundation, Dorothy was a supporter of the arts and many other causes. In 2018 she donated $5 million to the creative writing and film programs at SUNY Stony Brook Southampton, just one of countless gifts to organizations dedicated to the arts, community needs, and others too numerous to list.