James Rosenquist

March 3 – July 2, 2006
New Work Gallery

An internationally recognized artist since his emergence on the New York art scene in the early 1960s, James Rosenquist was a leading player in the American Pop art movement. While in art school, Rosenquist took jobs as a commercial billboard painter and later developed his own brand of the "new realist" style by fragmenting, combining, and juxtaposing images from advertising onto large-scale canvases. From his early Pop works to his recent masterful use of abstract painting techniques, Rosenquist has demonstrated his interest in and command of color, line, and shape that continue to dazzle audiences and influence younger generations of artists.

The exhibition at MAM includes eight major paintings from 1987 to 2004 that reflect the artist’s ongoing interest in current issues and events. Featured are Brazil (2004) and Early Catapult (1994) – both more than 20 feet long – and the Xenophobic Movie Director or Our Foreign Policy (2004), which voice concern over the social, political and environmental fate of the planet. Other works, such as The Meteor Hits Picasso’s Bed (1996-99) and a number of pieces from the artist’s Speed of Light series, are meditations on day-to-day existence and life-altering events.

A Florida resident for ore than 25 years, Rosenquist was honored with a 40-year retrospective of his work at New York City’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2003.

untitled james rosenquist painting
James Rosenquist, Untitled 2000, Oil on canvas, 70 x 85 inches
Collection Judy and Sherwood Weiser
Photo Credit: Peter Foe
image © James Rosenquist.

The exhibition is organized by the Miami Art Museum and curated by Assistant Director for Special Projects/Curator Lorie Mertes as part of New Work, a series of projects by leading contemporary artists