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A native of Grand Forks, North Dakota, Rosenquist felt pulled in different directions: to the New York art world and to California. Shortly after the lithograph was issued he commented, “The whole print is about myself… I live in the middle of the country… and I can go either West or East.” [1] The print is autobiographical in other ways; beginning with childhood, Rosenquist had a deep-seated fascination with cars and airplanes, a response to his father’s jobs. In the painted version of the image are caricatures of children outlined in white—a reference perhaps to playing under the stairs—here replaced by geometric shapes. Similarly, Rosenquist’s mentor, Jasper Johns, used this device as he, too, worked in both painted and printed versions of his compositions.
Both sides of Off the Continental Divide indicate Rosenquist’s fascination with intense colors in keeping with the Pop Art movement of the 1960s and 1970s, which derived so much of its imagery from advertising and magazines. The influence of commercial illustration on Rosenquist is palpable; his experience as a painter of billboards resonates in his bright palette and preference for large-scale work. The Day-Glo colors of the nails, however, belie their sinister association. By grouping them together in sets of five, with the fifth nail positioned diagonally across the first four, Rosenquist associates them with the marking of time, something a prisoner might do in his cell. He observed such “ugly” marks, as he called them, when he was thrown in jail one night after participating in a protest against the Vietnam War.
Off the Continental Divide is clearly a pastiche of disparate sources meaningful to Rosenquist and is typical of his approach. "I'm interested in contemporary vision—the flicker of chrome, reflections, rapid associations, quick flashes of light. Bing—bang! I don't do anecdotes. I accumulate experiences." [2]
Notes:
[1] Rosenquist interview in Newsday May 19, 1974, quoted in The Print Collector’s Newsletter 3, no. 3 (July–August 1974), 66.
[2] Rosenquist, as quoted in Judith Goldman, James Rosenquist (New York: Viking Penguin, 1985), 46.
ProvenanceTo 1983
Barbara B. Millhouse, New York, NY and Winston-Salem, NC. [1]
From 1983
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, given by Barbara B. Millhouse on December 29, 1983. [2]
Notes:
[1] Deed of Gift, object file.
[2] See note 1.
Exhibition History1976
Twentieth Century American Print Collection opening
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (12/3/1976)
Published ReferencesReynolda House Museum of American Art, Reynolda: Her Muses, Her Stories , with contributions by Martha R. Severens and David Park Curry (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Reynolda House Museum of American Art affiliated with Wake Forest University, 2017). pg. 198, 199
DepartmentAmerican Art
Off the Continental Divide
Artist
James Rosenquist
(1933 - 2017)
Date1973-1974
Mediumhanddrawn offset lithograph from twenty-nine plates
DimensionsFrame: 47 1/4 x 84 1/4 in. (120 x 214 cm)
Image: 37 x 77 in. (94 x 195.6 cm)
Paper (approximately): 42 x 78 1/4 in. (106.7 x 198.8 cm)
SignedJames Rosenquist 1973-'74
Credit LineGift of Barbara B. Millhouse
Copyright© 2021 James Rosenquist Foundation / Licensed by Artist Rights Society (ARS), NY, Used by permission. All rights reserved. Published by Universal Limited Art Editions
Object number1983.2.28
DescriptionLike much of James Rosenquist’s work, Off the Continental Divide is large and multifaceted. It is also autobiographical. When it was published in 1974 by Universal Limited Art Editions, it was the largest print—over six feet wide—ever to have been pulled from a press. The composition is divided down the center, creating two halves, not quite of equal size. On the left, a purple staircase ascends/descends silhouetted against a rainbow of colors that resemble crinkled plastic. Together, these are seen through the window of a car whose steel frame slashes across the top, along the right side, and diagonally downwards paralleling the stairs. Barely perceptible under the stairs is a set of geometric shapes. Juxtaposed on the right side and presented with less spatial dynamism is an upside down and open book hovering above four groups of brightly colored nails. A native of Grand Forks, North Dakota, Rosenquist felt pulled in different directions: to the New York art world and to California. Shortly after the lithograph was issued he commented, “The whole print is about myself… I live in the middle of the country… and I can go either West or East.” [1] The print is autobiographical in other ways; beginning with childhood, Rosenquist had a deep-seated fascination with cars and airplanes, a response to his father’s jobs. In the painted version of the image are caricatures of children outlined in white—a reference perhaps to playing under the stairs—here replaced by geometric shapes. Similarly, Rosenquist’s mentor, Jasper Johns, used this device as he, too, worked in both painted and printed versions of his compositions.
Both sides of Off the Continental Divide indicate Rosenquist’s fascination with intense colors in keeping with the Pop Art movement of the 1960s and 1970s, which derived so much of its imagery from advertising and magazines. The influence of commercial illustration on Rosenquist is palpable; his experience as a painter of billboards resonates in his bright palette and preference for large-scale work. The Day-Glo colors of the nails, however, belie their sinister association. By grouping them together in sets of five, with the fifth nail positioned diagonally across the first four, Rosenquist associates them with the marking of time, something a prisoner might do in his cell. He observed such “ugly” marks, as he called them, when he was thrown in jail one night after participating in a protest against the Vietnam War.
Off the Continental Divide is clearly a pastiche of disparate sources meaningful to Rosenquist and is typical of his approach. "I'm interested in contemporary vision—the flicker of chrome, reflections, rapid associations, quick flashes of light. Bing—bang! I don't do anecdotes. I accumulate experiences." [2]
Notes:
[1] Rosenquist interview in Newsday May 19, 1974, quoted in The Print Collector’s Newsletter 3, no. 3 (July–August 1974), 66.
[2] Rosenquist, as quoted in Judith Goldman, James Rosenquist (New York: Viking Penguin, 1985), 46.
ProvenanceTo 1983
Barbara B. Millhouse, New York, NY and Winston-Salem, NC. [1]
From 1983
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, given by Barbara B. Millhouse on December 29, 1983. [2]
Notes:
[1] Deed of Gift, object file.
[2] See note 1.
Exhibition History1976
Twentieth Century American Print Collection opening
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (12/3/1976)
Published ReferencesReynolda House Museum of American Art, Reynolda: Her Muses, Her Stories , with contributions by Martha R. Severens and David Park Curry (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Reynolda House Museum of American Art affiliated with Wake Forest University, 2017). pg. 198, 199
Status
Not on view