James Rosenquist
Back to Artist List1961
Oil on canvas
57 x 90 inches
1988
Oil on canvas
105 x 85 inches
1991
Oil and acrylic on canvas with clock mechanism and hands
73 x 86 inches
Artist Biography
James Rosenquist
1933-
James Rosenquist, born in 1933 in Grand Forks, North Dakota, is one of the most important American artists of our time. In 1955 Rosenquist left the Midwest for New York City, where he received his artistic training at the Art Students League amidst the popularity of Abstract Expressionism and artists such as Willem de Kooning. His artistic education led to a brief, but significant, career as a billboard painter, where he spent his days perched on scaffolding high above Times Square.
In the 1960’s Rosenquist transformed the visual language of commercial painting onto his canvases, filling his large-scale pictures with fragmented advertising imagery in bright Day-Glo colors. Rosenquist’s paintings of this era, such as the iconic F-111 (1965) in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, are pictorial critiques of contemporary American culture and he is considered a pioneer of the Pop Art movement along with fellow artists Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. Rosenquist’s paintings since the 1970’s have retained his trademark aesthetic and focus primarily on geo-political, existential and environmental themes.
The work of James Rosenquist is represented in major private and public collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and the Tate Modern in London. Aside from his many gallery and museum exhibitions, James Rosenquist has had more than fifteen retrospectives, with two at the Whitney Museum of American Art. In 2003-2004 the Guggenheim Museum organized a retrospective that traveled to Houston, New York, Bilbao and Wolfsburg. His 2009 autobiography Painting Below Zero: Notes on a Life in Art is a best-seller.
Photo by Russ Blaise, 1988.
Selected Press
Art & Auction In the Studio: James Rosenquist February 2014 PDF (4.7 MB)
New York Post Artsy 80th bash for James Rosenquist November 26, 2013 PDF (651 K)
North Dakota Museum of Art James Rosenquist Exhibition Celebrating His 80th Birthday August 22 - December 1, 2013 PDF (0.9 MB)
The National Five Artists and New Acquisitions for the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi May 13, 2013 PDF (1 MB)
The Wall Street Journal Destruction All around March 10-11, 2012 PDF (413 K)
New York Observer GALLERISTny
Vanity Fair VF Daily January 30, 2012 PDF (7.4 MB)
Art & Auction Calculating Value: Roy Lichentstein & James Rosenquist October 2011 PDF (1.1 MB)
ARTINFO Ben Stiller and David Zwirner Exult as Christie's Star-Packed "Artists for Haiti" Sale Tops $13 Million September 23, 2011 PDF (68 K)
VOGUE PEOPLE ARE TALKING ABOUT... ART: ACTS OF FAITH September 2009 PDF (309 K)
Bloomberg News Painter Rosenquist Savors Zeta-Jones Wet Kisses, Survives Fire February 23, 2010 PDF (49 K)
New York Magazine 110 Minutes With ... James Rosenquist December 7, 2009 PDF (1.3 MB)
ARTnews 22 Stories Above Times Square November 2009 PDF (0.9 MB)
New York Times Rosenquist Writ Large, By Himself October 28, 2009 PDF (16 MB)
Gallery Exhibitions
Off Canvas: Drawing
The Pop Object: The Still Life Tradition in Pop Art
James Rosenquist
James Rosenquist at MoMA
Robert & Ethel Scull: Portrait of a Collection
James Rosenquist:
James Rosenquist: Time Blades
James Rosenquist - Monochromes
Catalogues
James Rosenquist: Monochromes (OUT OF PRINT) View
James Rosenquist Time Blades View
Masterworks from Degas to Rosenquist Masterworks from Degas to Rosenquist View
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James Rosenquist Multiverse You Are, I Am View
The Pop Object: The Still Life Tradition in Pop Art View
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