JAMES ROSENQUIST

James Rosenquist (1933-2017) was an American Pop artist known for his monumental paintings and prints. Often approaching commercial imagery, his montage-like works combined popular culture, Surrealism, and historical painting methods. In his politically charged multi-panel painting F-111 (1964-1965), the artist offered a visual critique of the Vietnam War, with a medley of mushroom clouds, advertising, and populist imagery. Born in Grand Forks, ND, Rosenquist went on to attend the University of Minnesota, before studying at the Art Students League in New York, under George Grosz, Morris Kantor, and Edwin Dickinson. The artist's early career as a commercial sign painter ended in 1960, after witnessing two coworkers fall to their deaths from a scaffold. Focused on his career, Rosenquist moved to a studio in Lower Manhattan, where he met other artists such as Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Indiana, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jack Youngerman. Transitioning away from cultural references into more abstract subject matter, he lived and worked between Aripeka, FL and New York, NY. His works are held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Tate Gallery in London.