Roy Lichtenstein Award Launched by FCA to Support Emerging Artists

The Foundation for Contemporary Arts (FCA) in New York has announced the creation of the Roy Lichtenstein Award, a new grant for artists funded by a $1 million donation from the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation. The award will provide $40,000 annually to a single artist selected by a jury that includes Jasper Johns, Cecily Brown, Robert Gober, and Glenn Ligon. Dorothy Lichtenstein, widow of the Pop Art icon, welcomed the initiative, quoting Roy's remark that he never worked a day in his life but pursued his research daily. The FCA, founded in 1963 as the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts by artists including John Cage and Jasper Johns, originally supported performing arts through grants funded by donated artworks. Its first effort in 1962 backed Merce Cunningham's week-long Broadway performance. Today, the FCA has awarded over 2,500 grants through seven programs: Grants to Artists, Emergency Grants, the biennial John Cage Award and Merce Cunningham Award, and annual Robert Rauschenberg Award, Ellsworth Kelly Award, and Dorothea Tanning Award. The Roy Lichtenstein Award joins this portfolio, reinforcing the FCA's artist-to-artist support model.