The Roy Lichtenstein Foundation and Ohio State University have announced gifts totaling $6 million to endow two chairs at the university.

To be split between two endowments, the gifts will support the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation Endowed Chair of Art History in the Department of History of Art, and the Roy Lichtenstein Endowed Chair of Studio Art in the Department of Art. Lichtenstein received his BFA in 1946 and his MFA in 1949 from the School of Fine and Applied Arts in Ohio State's College of Education. He also taught studio courses at the university between 1946 and 1951.

"Roy was an artist ahead of his time, and we look forward to bringing in an artist whose works bring a similar mixture of science and aesthetics to a new generation, inserting and injecting new technologies and modes of visual expression to carry the synthesis forward," said Rebecca Harvey, chair of the Department of Art at OSU.

"For a number of years, Roy's family and the foundation have been looking for the most promising way to enhance the Ohio State program," said Dorothy Lichtenstein, the artist's widow. "Happily, as the Ohio State Arts District begins to take shape and the Columbus art and museum scene expands, we think these professorships can build on this momentum."