The Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville will reopen to the public just in the time for people to experience the final weekend of “Roy Lichtenstein: History in the Making, 1948–1960,” the first museum exhibition to take a deep look at the Pop artist’s pre-Pop artistic investigations. The Colby museum and the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University collaborated for the exhibition, which has been open only to the Colby community.

That changes on Friday, June 4, when Colby opens its doors to all. But don’t postpone the visit, because the exhibition comes down June 6. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 4-5, and noon to 5 p.m. June 6. Admission is free, and visitors are asked to register in advance.

We all know how Lichtenstein’s story ends, with him becoming one of North America’s most celebrated and influential artists of the 20th century after showing at the Leo Castelli Gallery in 1961. “History in the Making” is the first chapter, looking at a dozen years of invention and discovery that led to Lichtenstein’s Pop Art breakthrough. The Colby exhibition explores aspects of Lichtenstein’s career in depth that have previously been treated lightly or ignored. Many of the 93 pieces have not been shown since the 1950s, and some never.

Also this summer at Colby, “Bob Thompson: This House Is Mine” is scheduled to open on July 20. It’s the first major survey in more than 20 years of the African American figurative painter, who died in 1966 before he turned 30. For information and details, go to colby.edu/museum.

In Rockland, the Center for Maine Contemporary Art will open a trio of summer exhibitions on Saturday: “The Shape of Things” by David Row, the first major exhibition of the Maine-born painter and printmaker; “Nor’East” by photographer S.B. Walker, who interprets Maine’s social landscape; and “Will o the’ Wisp,” a collaborative installation organized by Joy Feasley and Paul Swenbeck and featuring Asata Radcliffe, Aaron Igler, Virgil Marti, Clint Takeda, Kelsey Halliday Johnson and Shannon Bowser.

All exhibitions will be on view through Sept. 12. CMCA is closed through Friday for installations. When it reopens, hours will be 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $8 adults, $5 seniors and students and members. New this year, CMCA is offering free memberships to all residents of Rockland thanks to a partnership with First National Bank. Beginning May 29, Rockland residents older than 18 can sign up for a CMCA membership with proof of a Rockland mailing address.

Also in Rockland, the Farnsworth Art Museum is showing three exhibitions by and about iconic art family the Wyeths through the summer and beyond.

Already open is “Betsy’s Gift: The Works of N.C., Andrew and Jamie Wyeth,” based on a recent gift of paintings and works on paper from the family matriarch, who died last year at age 98, as well as “Betsy Wyeth: Partner and Muse,” with paintings by Andrew Wyeth.

Opening June 12 is “George Tice and Andrew Wyeth: Parallel Visions,” offering a look at how two very different artists and contemporaries interpreted the same geography.

Another exhibition of works by a midcoast art icon, “Robert Indiana: The Hartley Elegies” opens Saturday at the Farnsworth. The museum will exhibit 10 silkscreen prints from a series of prints and paintings that Indiana made between 1989 and 1994 inspired by and in tribute to American modernist painter Marsden Hartley, who was born in Maine and lived briefly on Vinalhaven, 40 years before Indiana arrived as a year-round resident in the late 1970s.

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