James Rosenquist: Painting As Immersion

A monograph on the great Pop Art master, James Rosenquist, this book shows how the artist’s large-scale works and their source materials remain powerful and relevant as cultural and political commentary. With a background in advertising and painting billboards, James Rosenquist had a unique perspective on the dual effects of imagery and scale on the viewing experience. His colossal pieces are immersive - they surround the viewer and dominate most gallery spaces. In this volume readers can examine his process of creating image-laden abstractions through his source materials. Rosenquist often started with images he’d literally ripped from the pages of print media and which he then transformed into collages. From there he would scale up the collage, recreating it as a large-scale canvas or installation. This book presents both well-known and rarely exhibited pieces, including F-111 and The Swimmer in the Economist, to show how juxtaposing seemingly incongruent images creates a powerful mirror of commercialist culture. Essays about Rosenquist’s life, oeuvre, technique, and impact on the art world create a multi-faceted portrait of an artist who believed that the sum of the parts was essential to understanding the whole. AUTHOR: Stephan Diederich is Curator of the collection of 20th century art at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Germany.