• Exhibitions
• Artists
• Catalogues
• Art Fairs
• Gallery
• News
• Search

Artist Biography

James Rosenquist

1933-

James Rosenquist, one of the first Pop artists, was born in Grand Fork, North Dakota in 1933 and grew up in Minneapolis, where he attended art school. He went to New York in 1955 to study at The Art Students' League, and by the late 1950s, had met Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg and Robert Indiana, all important figures in the transition from Abstract Expressionism to Pop.

While at the University of Minnesota, Rosenquist had painted outdoor advertising, and upon arriving in New York, he worked painting billboards high above Times Square. He applied techniques used in his commercial work to his painting, and in a collage-like manner, juxtaposed images from advertising and mass media such as automobile tires, canned spaghetti, and movie stars. His broad themes related to an American culture of consumerism, and his paintings from the early 1960's are pictorial narratives of contemporary America.

Like most early Pop Art, Rosenquist's work in the 1960s was ambiguous. The images were painted in a uniform manner, and it was difficult to discern any overall meaning. By the 1970s, his paintings came to include personal references and allusions to themes of time, political issues, anti-violence and death.

Selected Press

Gallery Exhibitions

Robert & Ethel Scull: Portrait of a Collection
April 13 - May 27, 2010
View

James Rosenquist:
The Hole in the Middle of Time and The Hole in the Wallpaper
February 18 - March 19, 2010
View

James Rosenquist: Time Blades
October 31 - December 14, 2007
View

James Rosenquist - Monochromes
October 4 - November 11, 2005
View

Catalogues

Acquavella Galleries