Release Date: October 5, 2012

Roy Lichtenstein's Print "The Oval Office" Installed for Retrospective and Upcoming Inauguration

Roy Lichtenstein, The Oval Office, 1992,
color screenprint
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Gift of Roy and Dorothy Lichtenstein
1996.56.126

Washington, DC—To celebrate Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective and the upcoming inauguration, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, has installed the Lichtenstein's print The Oval Office (1992). Commissioned as part of the Artists for Freedom of Expression project to benefit the Democratic National Committee during the 1992 Clinton/Gore campaign, the print was later chosen as one of six commemorative inaugural posters by the Presidential Inaugural Committee.

The inaugural poster was reproduced with the heading "A New Generation of Leadership" prior to the Democratic National Convention and also made into a campaign button. The five other posters were executed by Carroll Cloar, Diane Morely, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, the Shooting Back Project, and Tim Rollins and the Kids of Survival.

The Oval Office, a color screenprint, was a gift to the Gallery from Roy and Dorothy Lichtenstein in 1996. Other artists who contributed works to the Artists for Freedom of Expression project were Ida Applebroog, Jennifer Bartlett, Jim Dine, Jimmie Durham, Leon Golub, Red Grooms, Jenny Holzer, Joan Mitchell, Elizabeth Murray, Edwin Schlossberg, Julian Schnabel, Cindy Sherman, Nancy Spero, Carrie Mae Weems, and William Wegman.

Lichtenstein studied the interior of the Oval Office at the White House to accurately include decorative details such as the paintings that once hung on the walls. In January 1993, after the print and poster were issued, Lichtenstein completed the painting The Oval Office.