James Rosenquist

This substantial new catalogue is a major addition to existing scholarship on the important American artist James Rosenquist. Featuring numerous gatefold images, different papers and a silk ribbon, it contains commissioned essays by Carter Ratcliff–who argues that to label Rosenquist a Pop artist is to deny the complexity of his oeuvre and diminish his achievement–and Sarah Bancroft, who suggests that the notion of abstraction is key to understanding all of Rosenquist’s work, from 1960 onward, and not just the «overtly abstract» paintings of the past seven years. In addition, in a wide-ranging interview with Scott Rothkopf, the artist discusses the place of political engagement in his work, the importance of collage, his ongoing fascination with time and the element of excitement: «It’s like taking drugs. It has to be exciting to be able to paint it. You have to feel it’s worthwhile doing it, to really pull it off.»