Rosenquist, James

Rosenquist, James, 1933–, American painter, b. Grand Forks, N.Dak. He moved to New York City in 1955. Identified with the pop art movement, Rosenquist incorporates disparate and fragmented images of everyday American life into his huge canvases. Although they are realistically painted, they can appear abstract because of their vast scale and color. Rosenquist borrowed from his earlier experience as a billboard painter for these works. His best-known painting, F-111 (1965), is a 51-panel work occupying the walls of an entire room; it enigmatically juxtaposes such images as a warplane, a child under a hair dryer, a cake, a mushroom cloud and beach umbrella, light bulbs, a tire, and a mass of spaghetti. Rosenquist, who has sometimes worked in sculpture, mixed media, and collage, is also a prolific printmaker.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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