James Rosenquist, “Space Dust,” 1989. SUAC 2002.0052. Image courtesy of the artist. © 2015 James Rosenquist/Licensed by VAGA, New York. Used by permission of the artist. All rights reserved.
The Syracuse University Art Galleries will host the exhibition “James Rosenquist: Illustrious Works on Paper, Illuminating Paintings.” Developed in collaboration with the Oklahoma State Museum of Art and curated by Sarah C. Bancroft, co-curator of the artist’s 2003 retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum, “Illustrious Works on Paper, Illuminating Paintings” investigates the impact Rosenquist has had, and continues to have, on American art. The exhibition presents over 35 works from the artist’s long career, including examples of his earliest abstractions from the 1950s and his exploration and evolution into pop art.
The exhibition will be on view Thursday, Aug. 20, to Sunday, Nov. 22, in the Shaffer Art Building. Gallery hours are Tuesday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; and Thursdays 11 a.m.-8 p.m. The SUArt Galleries will host a free opening night reception from 5-7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 10. Patrons are welcome to view the exhibition until the gallery closes at 8 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public.
Rosenquist (American, b. 1933) became well known in the 1960s as a leader in the American pop art movement alongside contemporaries Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Claes Oldenburg, and for more than five decades has created seminal works in printmaking, collage, drawing and painting. Iconic large-scale prints and works on paper, like “F-111 (South, West, North, East),” 1974, and “Space Dust,” 1989, alongside monumental works such as the 11-by-25-foot “The Geometry of Fire,” 2011, are balanced with rare sketches, studies and collages that give unique insight into the artistic process.
“The exhibition offers a great, focused overview of James Rosenquist’s career, from his earliest artistic explorations in the 1960s to recent, billboard-size works,” says curator Bancroft. “Ultimately, he’s always thinking and pushes us to think as well. But he does this in a very bright, colorful manner, which you may expect from someone who mastered painting advertisements all across New York City.”
The SUArt Galleries is also hosting “The Rosenquist Network: Collaboration and Connections in the American Print Workshop,” on Thursday, Oct. 22, at 7 p.m., in the Slocum Hall Auditorium. The panel discussion will assemble some of the most influential print publishers and scholars to explore the role the printmaking workshop has played in Rosenquist’s career, and is co-sponsored by the Syracuse University Humanities Center in the College of Arts and Sciences, organizer of the 2015 Syracuse Symposium™ on “Networks.” The panel is free and open to the public.
Select programming associated with the exhibition include two Lunchtime Lectures at the Galleries. Andrew Saluti, assistant director of SUArt Galleries, will lead a gallery talk about “James Rosenquist and the American Print” on Wednesday, Sept. 9, at 12:15 p.m. Bancroft, guest curator of the exhibition, will lead a gallery tour of the exhibition on Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 12:15 p.m. Docent-led tours of the exhibition are available upon request; further information regarding the tours and scheduling will be available on the exhibition website. This exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, available for sale in the Gallery Shop.
Also on view with “Illustrious Works on Paper, Illuminating Paintings” will be two exhibitions curated from the University Art Collection that give context to Rosenquist’s work and his contemporaries. “British Prints in the Age of Pop,” curated by SUArt Director Domenic Iacono, examines a selection of artists who embraced the pop art movement popularized by American artists, and generated a body of work that looked at the cinema, comic book art, advertising, popular music and product packaging as sources for their art. “The New Humanists: Introspective Impressions from the Syracuse University Art Collection,” curated by Assistant Director Andrew Saluti, examines the swell of post-World War II visual artists making work rooted in the psychological state of humanity, creating prints derived from introspection, observation and reflection. These exhibitions will open Aug. 20, and will be on view through Sept. 27.
