James Rosenquist Biography

Fast Facts

• The Salvador Dali Museum presented him with the Order of Salvador Dali in 2009
• Was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 2001
• Won the Florida Ambassador of the Arts Award from the Florida Department of State in 1987
• Studied art at the University of Minnesota, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League
• Painted storage bins, grain elevators, gasoline tanks and billboards to support himself early in his career
• Quote: "What really, really got to me was the idea that, could I ever do anything like Michelangelo? By that I mean, how do you get from being a kid to being someone who could do the Sistine Chapel?"
• Quote: "I'm interested in the speed of recognition of color in space and the acceleration of nostalgia into the future․"
• Much of his art consists of fragmented, disproportionate images and are combined and overlapped on canvas
• A major figure in the pop-art movement, he adapted the visual styles of advertising and pop culture into fine art, drawing from his experience as a billboard painter
• Created the 7 foot by 35 foot "Time Dust," thought to be the largest print in the world