James Rosenquist: Pop Art, Politics, and History in the 1960s

Michael Lobel, James Rosenquist

University of California Press, 2009 - Art - 214 pages

James Rosenquist's paintings, with their billboard-sized images of commercial subjects, are utterly emblematic of 1960s Pop Art. Their provocative imagery also touches on some of the major political and historical events of that turbulent decade--from the Kennedy assassination to the war in Vietnam. In the first full-length scholarly examination of Rosenquist's art from that period, Michael Lobel weaves together close visual analysis, a wealth of archival research, and a consideration of the social and historical contexts in which these paintings were produced to offer bold new readings of a body of work that helped redefine art in the 1960s. Bringing together a range of approaches, James Rosenquist provides a compelling perspective on the artist and on the burgeoning consumer culture of postwar America.

Contents

• Between the Billboard and the Studio: 19
• Approaching History: 41
• F111 123: 141

About the author

Michael Lobel is Associate Professor of Art History and Director of the M.A. Program in Modern and Contemporary Art, Criticism, and Theory at Purchase College, State University of New York. James Albert Rosenquist was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota on November 29, 1933. He received an associate degree in studio art from the University of Minnesota. He went to work for a billboard company painting advertisements for movies, liquor, and soft drinks. In 1955, he received a one-year scholarship to the Art Students League in New York. He returned to sign painting and worked mostly for the Artkraft Strauss Sign Corporation, which painted some of the largest billboards in the world. He continued the work until 1960, when he quit after two co-workers fell from a scaffold and died. He became a pioneer of Pop Art in the 1960s. He is best known for F-111, which was made in 1964 and 1965 in part as a protest against American militarism. His autobiography, Painting Below Zero: Notes on a Life in Art written with David Dalton, was published in 2009. He died after a long illness on March 31, 2017 at the age of 83.

Bibliographic information

• Title: James Rosenquist: Pop Art, Politics, and History in the 1960s; An Ahmanson-Murphy fine arts book
• Authors: Michael Lobel, James Rosenquist
• Illustrated by: James Rosenquist
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: University of California Press, 2009
• Original from: the University of Michigan
• Digitized: Nov 26, 2009
• ISBN: 0520253035, 9780520253032
• Length: 214 pages
• Subjects: Art / American / General; Art / Criticism & Theory; Art / General; Art / History / Contemporary (1945-); Art / History / General; Art / History / Modern (late 19th Century to 1945); History / Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies)