James Rosenquist facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
James Rosenquist
|
|
|---|---|
Photo by: Russ Blaise 1988
|
|
| Born | November 29, 1933 |
| Died | March 31, 2017 (aged 83) New York City, U.S.
|
| Education | Minneapolis College of Art and Design University of Minnesota Art Students League of New York |
| Known for | Painter, printmaker, graphic artist |
| Movement | Pop art |
| Spouse(s) |
Mary Lou Adams
(m. 1960; div. 1975)Mimi Thompson
(m. 1987) |
James Albert Rosenquist (born November 29, 1933 – died March 31, 2017) was a famous American artist. He was a key figure in the Pop art movement.
Rosenquist used to paint large signs and billboards. This background helped him create art that looked at advertising and how people buy things. He used bright colors and big images, just like in ads.
His art is often compared to other Pop artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. But Rosenquist's work was special. He often mixed parts of ads and everyday pictures in a dream-like way. This showed how much advertising surrounds us. In 2001, he was added to the Florida Artists Hall of Fame.
Early life
James Rosenquist was born on November 29, 1933, in Grand Forks, North Dakota. He was the only child of Louis and Ruth Rosenquist. His parents were amateur pilots who moved often for work. They finally settled in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
His mother was also a painter and encouraged his artistic interests. In junior high, Rosenquist won a scholarship to study at the Minneapolis School of Art. He then studied painting at the University of Minnesota from 1952 to 1954.
In 1955, when he was 21, he moved to New York City. He received a scholarship to study at the Art Students League. He learned from famous painters like Edwin Dickinson. Rosenquist once said he wanted to learn how to paint huge murals, like the Sistine Chapel.
While studying, Rosenquist worked as a chauffeur. Later, he joined a painters' union. He painted billboards around Times Square and became a lead painter for a company called Artkraft-Strauss. He painted displays and windows on Fifth Avenue. By 1960, he stopped painting signs after a friend had an accident. He decided to focus on his own art. He developed a unique style that still used the bold colors and large size of billboards.
Career
Rosenquist's career in commercial art began when he was 18. His mother encouraged him to take a summer job painting signs. He started by painting Phillips 66 signs at gas stations. From 1957 to 1960, he made a living painting billboards.
He used these sign-painting skills for his large art pieces starting in 1960. Like other Pop artists, Rosenquist used the look of advertising and pop culture in his fine art. He once wrote that he could paint a whiskey bottle "in my sleep" from all his billboard work. Time magazine said his strong graphic style helped define the 1960s Pop Art movement.
Rosenquist had his first two solo art shows at the Green Gallery in 1962 and 1963. His huge painting F-111 was shown at the Leo Castelli Gallery in 1965. This painting brought him international fame.
However, Rosenquist said he didn't really know other Pop artists like Andy Warhol or Roy Lichtenstein well. He felt critics grouped them together because they all used recognizable images.
In 1971, Rosenquist came to South Florida. He worked with the University of South Florida's Graphicstudio. He became a key part of the studio, working with students and other artists. He even built his own studio in Aripeka in 1976. Rosenquist continued to visit Florida. He created murals for Florida's state capitol building and a sculpture for Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital.
His painting F-111 was displayed for many years in the lobby of Key Tower in Cleveland, Ohio. After becoming famous, Rosenquist created many large commissioned artworks. This included The Swimmer in the Econo-mist for a museum in Berlin, Germany.
Works
Zone
Zone (1961) was a very important painting for Rosenquist. It helped him find his unique style. It was the first time he used a huge size, which became a common feature in his art. Zone also marked a change from his earlier experiments with Abstract Expressionism. Rosenquist called it his first Pop Art piece.
He painted Zone with oil on two separate canvases. It shows images from mass media, like a picture of a tomato and an ad for hand cream. The two images are split into different sections. This highlights visual similarities, like the curve of the tomato stem and the woman's eyelashes. It also shows Rosenquist's unique, often dream-like, fragmented style.
President Elect
President Elect was painted in the same year as Zone. It is one of Rosenquist's most famous works. In it, he took a picture of John F. Kennedy from a campaign poster and made it into a huge painting. The painting also includes a gray picture of a hand holding cake and the back of a Chevrolet car.
Rosenquist used these popular images to explore fame and how advertising connects with people. He looked at the kind of fame that comes with American politics. With President Elect, Rosenquist wanted to comment on the new role of advertising during Kennedy's election campaign. He said he was interested in people who advertised themselves. He saw Kennedy's face, a Chevrolet, and a piece of cake as things marketed to American consumers.
F-111
In 1965, James Rosenquist finished F-111. This was one of his biggest and most ambitious works. It is over 83 feet long and made of 23 canvases. Its huge size reminds us of Rosenquist's billboard work. It shows a life-sized image of the F-111 Aardvark aircraft.
The painting was meant to cover all four walls of a main room in a gallery in Manhattan. This would create a continuous, powerful view of war. Rosenquist painted F-111 during the Vietnam War. It mixes pictures from the war with images from ads. These include tires, a cake, lightbulbs, a girl under a salon hairdryer, bubbles, and spaghetti.
Rosenquist put these ad images next to the plane to suggest scenes from the war. For example, broken light bulbs near the cockpit look like bombs falling. The shape of the hairdryer looks like a missile. Rosenquist used the painting to question how marketing and media covered the war. He saw the plane as "flying through the flak of consumer society." He wanted to question the link between the war, buying things, media, and advertising.
Honors
Rosenquist received many awards. In 1963, he was chosen as "Art In America Young Talent USA." In 1978, he was appointed to the Board of the National Council of the Arts. He received the Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement in 1988. In 2002, he won an international art award for his contributions to world culture.
His art has been shown in many galleries and museums around the world. The Whitney Museum of American Art and the Wallraf-Richartz Museum held early shows of his work in 1972. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum organized a big show of his entire career in 2003. This show traveled to many countries.
His painting F-111, shown at The Jewish Museum in 1965, was even mentioned in a book by Douglas Coupland.
Personal life
Rosenquist was married twice and had two children. With his first wife, Mary Lou Adams, he had a son named John. They married in 1960 and later divorced. In 1976, he moved to Aripeka, Florida. His second wife was Mimi Thompson, whom he married in 1987. They had a daughter named Lily.
In 2009, a fire swept through Hernando County, Florida, where Rosenquist lived. His house, studios, and warehouse burned down. All of his paintings stored there were destroyed.
Death
James Rosenquist died at his home in New York City on March 31, 2017. He was 83 years old and had been ill for a long time. He was survived by his wife, Mimi Thompson, his daughter Lily, his son John, and a grandson, Oscar.
See also
In Spanish: James Rosenquist para niños
