Chicago Sun-Times

Pop artist resisted Warhol, Lichtenste­in comparison­s

-

NEW YORK — Artist James Rosenquist, a key figure in the pop art movement, has died. He was 83.

Mr. Rosenquist’s wife, Mimi Thompson, told The New York Times that he died Friday in New York City after a long illness.

Mr. Rosenquist started by painting signs and billboard advertisem­ents in Times Square and other public places. He later incorporat­ed images from popular culture, from celebritie­s to consumer goods, into his work.

One of his best- known pieces is “President Elect,” created in the early 1960s. It is a billboard- style painting depicting John F. Kennedy’s face alongside a yellow Chevrolet and a piece of cake.

“The face was from Kennedy’s campaign poster. I was very interested at that time in people who advertised themselves,” Mr. Rosenquist told the art appreciati­on organizati­on The Art Story. “Why did they put up an advertisem­ent of themselves? So that was his face. And his promise was half a Chevrolet and a piece of stale cake.”

Another popular piece was Mr. Rosenquist’s “F- 111,” which superimpos­es a Vietnam War fighter- bomber on images of children and consumer goods.

Mr. Rosenquist resisted comparison­s to his contempora­ries Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenste­in.

“I’m not like Andy War- hol. He did Coca- Cola bottles and Brillo pads. I used generic imagery — no brand names — to make a new kind of picture,” Mr. Rosenquist said in a 2007 interview with Smithsonia­n magazine. “People can remember their childhood, but events from four or five years ago are in a nevernever land. That was the imagery I was concerned with — things that were a little bit familiar but not things you feel nostalgic about. Hot dogs and typewriter­s — generic things people sort of recognize.”

Mr. Rosenquist was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota. His mother was an amateur painter who supported his creative interests early on. His watercolor of a sunset won him an art scholarshi­p to take classes at the Minneapoli­s School of Art. He later attended the University of Minnesota before moving to New York City in 1955.

In 2009, a fire destroyed several works by Mr. Rosenquist at his home and studio in Aripeka, Florida. It was the same year he released his autobiogra­phy, “Painting Below Zero: Notes on a Life in Art,” written with David Dalton.

Mr. Rosenquist’s work has been featured in solo exhibition­s at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and other institutio­ns.

 ??  ?? James Rosenquist’s “Four New Clear Women” is displayed June 14, 2016, in Basel, Switzerlan­d. | MICHELE TANTUSSI/ GETTY IMAGES
James Rosenquist’s “Four New Clear Women” is displayed June 14, 2016, in Basel, Switzerlan­d. | MICHELE TANTUSSI/ GETTY IMAGES
 ??  ?? James Rosenquist started by painting signs and billboards in Times Square and other public places.
| WOLFGANG WEIHS/ DPA VIA AP
James Rosenquist started by painting signs and billboards in Times Square and other public places. | WOLFGANG WEIHS/ DPA VIA AP

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States