James Rosenquist: Universe

Sehwa Museum of Art, affiliated with the Taekwang Group and Sehwa Art and Culture Foundation, is hosting a solo exhibition of James Rosenquist (1933-2017), a prominent American Pop Art artist. This exhibition, James Rosenquist : Universe, in cooperation with the Estate of James Rosenquist, will present the first-ever large-scale retrospective of Rosenquist's work in Korea, encompassing paintings, collages, and archival materials from the 1960s to the 2010s that have not previously  been presented in Korea.

 James Rosenquist was a leading artist who played a key role in the American Pop Art movement, alongside artists such as Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Jim Dine, Roy Lichtenstein, and Claes Oldenburg.

 Rosenquist created narrative images using the imagery of advertising and mass media, while his experience as a billboard painter enabled him to render works of massive scale. This helped him form his distinctive artistic style which influenced the development of American Pop Art.

 The exhibition James Rosenquist : Universe showcases his innovative endeavors to push the boundaries of painting and his lifelong exploration of the universe, time, and space. The exhibition aims to bring together the artist’s works chronologically, spanning from his early works, which demonstrate not only his radical experiments with s, pushing the boundaries of the field of painting, but also his innovative use of vibrant color palettes to his later works, which explore the possibilities of perception of time and space, surrealist compositions, and abstract techniques. The exhibition will also feature the artist’s ‘source collage’ works, which served as a preparatory approach to imagery, illuminating his practice, influences, and motivations in depth.

 Over the course of 60 years, Rosenquist explored a wide variety of subjects, addressing issues ranging from social and economic concerns to scientific, cosmic, and existential questions, conveying from small collage works to massive billboard paintings. The artist’s fascination with the galaxy and the universe challenges us to contemplate not only the expansion of images but also experiments with medium, deviations from space­time, and our infinitesimal existence compared to the vastness of the universe. Immerse yourself in the unique perspective of James Rosenquist, who offered a new way of seeing the world through his monumental paintings. 

“There's so much we know nothing about. Here we are in our natural environment and the mysteries of the universe are all around us. I want to paint these mysteries.”   

- Sehwa Museum of Art Press Release, July 2024 

Exhibition Website