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.