James Rosenquist

James Rosenquist was born in 1933 at Grand Forks, North Dakota. His family moved to Minneapolis in 1944 and he began to study art four years later. In 1955 he won a scholarship to the Art Students' League in New York, where he first met Robert Indiana, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Claes Oldenburg. During his first years at the school he painted small-format abstract paintings and worked part-time as a driver. His next job saw him made head billboard painter at the ArtKraft -Strauss...See more

James Rosenquist was born in 1933 at Grand Forks, North Dakota. His family moved to Minneapolis in 1944 and he began to study art four years later. In 1955 he won a scholarship to the Art Students' League in New York, where he first met Robert Indiana, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Claes Oldenburg. During his first years at the school he painted small-format abstract paintings and worked part-time as a driver. His next job saw him made head billboard painter at the ArtKraft -Strauss Corporation; around that same time he produced his pivotal large-scale work President Elect by combining J.F.K.'s face with sex and automobile imagery. The rest is Pop Art history: Rosenquist's first one-man exhibition in 1962 at the Green Gallery sold out. Three years later he made what has come to be considered one of his most important works, the 26-meter-long F-111. In 1968 he was given his first retrospective by the National Gallery of Canada. See less