James Rosenquist
James Rosenquist, a pioneering Pop artist who first earned his living as a billboard painter, came of age in the booming economy of post-World War II America. Finding his subject matter in the detritus of consumer culture and the remnants of everyday images, his idiosyncratic visual language is one saturated in the American vernacular. Rosenquist's imagery is dense, compacted, eccentric, and often hard to decipher. His implausible juxtapositions, strident Day-Glo colors, and seemingly discordant couplings often bombard the viewer.
James Rosenquist working on Through the Eye of the Needle to the Anvil (1988), Aripeka, Florida, 1988. Photo by Russ Blaise, courtesy of James Rosenquist. © 2015 James Rosenquist/Licensed by VAGA, NY. Used by Permission. All rights reserved.