He studied the Art Students League in New York in 1939 and at the School of Fine Arts at Ohio State University, Columbus where he received his M.F.A. in 1949. His first solo exhibition was in 1951 and from 1962, the Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, held regular exhibitions of his work. Lichtenstein participated in the Venice Biennale in 1966, and was honored with solo exhibitions in 1967 and 1968 at the Pasadena Art Museum and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, respectively, and in 1994 he was the subject of a major retrospective at the Guggenheim.

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Lichtenstein is known as one of the major American Pop artists of the 1960s. His use of Benday dots to create comic book style paintings and prints referenced familiar themes and imagery of popular culture.

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Lichtenstein's work can be found in many public and private collections around the world including the Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Whitney Museum of Art, New York; Tate Gallery, London; Albertina, Vienna, Austria.