Dorothy Lichtenstein, Philanthropist and a Rare ‘Artist’s Widow,’ Dies at 84

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

The cause was heart failure after a brief illness, according to Jack Cowart, the executive director of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation.

An elegant and engaging woman who did not claim to have any artistic talent, Ms. Lichtenstein redefined the image of the “artist’s widow,” a relentlessly maligned art-world type. The widow “controls the entirety of her dead husband’s production,” as the critic Harold Rosenberg wrote in Esquire magazine in 1965, and tends to conduct herself with a queenly arrogance.

Ms. Lichtenstein, by contrast, was described by friends as a gracious philanthropist who was loath to meddle or micromanage. Instead of seeking to sell the work left in her husband’s estate, she simply 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.

Moreover, she did not want the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, of which she was co-founder and president, to continue in perpetuity. “We are working towards a sunset in 2026,” explained Mr. Cowart, the executive director.