Dorothy Lichtenstein, a prominent arts patron and widow of the acclaimed Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, died on July 4 at her home in Southampton, NY. She was 84.

Described as an elegant, engaging woman and a gracious philanthropist, instead of seeking to sell the work left in her husband’s estate, she gave most of it away. Her donations consisted of paintings and sculptures, piles of sketchbooks, file drawers bulging with correspondence, and even the building in Lower Manhattan in which Mr. Lichtenstein’s last studio was located.

Through the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, of which she was co-founder and president, the family donated 1,000 works to museums in the United States and abroad. The main beneficiary was the Whitney Museum of American Art, which in 2018 received a gift of some 400 works from Mr. Lichtenstein’s personal study collection — a mix of classic Pop paintings and sculptures and lesser-known material, like his early sketches of Native Americans and photographs he took of New York City building facades.

When she gave the studio building to the Whitney, “with characteristic self-effacement, she declined the Whitney’s offer to rename it in her honor,” The New York Times reported.

 

[The Shofar editor was particularly moved by tributes in her memory, yet not surprised. Although not close friends, I and Dolly Herzka, as she was known then, were college classmates and acquaintances, who many times talked together about college life and what we hoped would be fulfilling careers. Her beauty and grace were clearly evident even then. SMB]