By the wishes of the artist and his family, the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation was chartered as a Private Operating Foundation in 1998, primarily 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.
During the last fifteen years we have expanded our activities to include: the rescue, organization and donation of the enormous and historically consequential Shunk-Kender and Harry Shunk Photography Collections to a consortium of five international museums/research centers; consistent support of the Aspen Institute National Study of Artist-Endowed Foundations; providing expertise to numerous Lichtenstein exhibitions; supporting numerous outreach and research topics, including artists’ materials and postwar art and art history; building a Study Collection of early Lichtenstein and later generative sketches, models, maquettes and artifacts; functioning as an image and information database for a broad range of art, art history and oral histories; and working with museums to acquire notable Lichtenstein artworks from our collections and the collections of others.
The Foundation began operation in 1999 in the artist’s West Greenwich Village studio. Its primary offices are currently located in a townhouse contiguous to the studio. These offices house the research library, administration, rights and reproductions, and catalogue raisonné work spaces.