James Rosenquist

James Rosenquist
1933-2017
Fork and Ice Cube
1967
Charcoal, chalk and cut and pasted paper.
22 1/4 x 30 inches (56.5 x 76.2 cm)
Gift of the Roy and Dorothy Lichtenstein Collection.
© James Rosenquist / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
2014.43
Notes: 

Rosenquist, best remembered for his collage-like Pop paintings, translated his years of experience as a New York City storefront designer and billboard painter into his artistic output. Using his commercial skills, along with the iconography of advertising and mass media, Rosenquist composed his works through an intricate layering of imagery and pop culture symbols. Many of his works began as collages, which he used as studies for his larger paintings. This sheet depicts a fork improbably stabbing or scooping up an ice cube. The fork is a frequent motif in Rosenquist's work, and may be a pun on his city of origin: Grand Forks, North Dakota. As he does in this drawing, he often depicts objects with cool, reflective surfaces that elicit palpable sensations in the viewer.

Provenance: 
Paul Bianchini Gallery; Collection of Roy and Dorothy Lichtenstein.
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