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Notes on a life in art

About the Author

James Rosenquist has had more than fifteen retrospectives, with two at the Whitney Museum of American Art and four at the Guggenheim Museum. He also has had many gallery and museum exhibitions, both in the United States and abroad. He divides his time between Florida and New York, where he lives with his wife and daughter.

David Dalton is the author of some fifteen books, including a biography of James Dean and a novel, Been Here and Gone. He lives in upstate New York with his wife, the painter Coco Pekelis.

Reviews

“Frank, funny, truthful, ironic and in every way an entertaining account of one major American artist’s involvement in an art movement that interests everyone–and, more than that, of his own character. Jim Rosenquist is a true American original and his book ought to be read by anyone who wants to understand the last half-century of his country’s visual culture, high, low, and in between.”
–Robert Hughes, author of Things I Didn’t Know and Goya

Praise for James Rosenquist’s Painting Below Zero
 
“There is so much to enjoy in this book. There is Rosenquist’s decency, integrity, and wonderful sense of humor. He knows how to tell a good story . . . He has been almost everywhere, knows just about everybody, and reveals his heart and his mind and how and why he paints. It is one of the best books ever written by an artist.”
—Milton Esterow, ARTnews
 
“This highly entertaining memoir by the great pop artist, known for his billboard-influenced paintings, describes the rocky transition from abstract expressionism to pop art from the inside. But its strength comes from Rosenquist's big-hearted Midwestern storytelling.”
—Jed Lipinski, The Village Voice
 
By sharing the extraordinary story of his life in this involving, richly illustrated autobiography, Rosenquist deepens our appreciation for his work and for creativity . . . He is as arresting in print as he is on canvas.”
—Donna Seaman, Booklist
 
“Mr. Rosenquist’s new memoir . . . is an unexpected treat—it’s a ruddy and humble book, lighted from within by the author’s plainspoken, blue-collar charm . . .  He describes strange nights in Hollywood accompanying the actor Dennis Hopper, who ‘prowled through the unlocked houses of aspiring actors and actresses’ . . . and the Warhol star Ultra Violet cavorting topless on Mr. Rosenquist’s front lawn in East Hampton one Sunday morning just as church was letting out . . . An inviting coming-of-age story, a self-portrait by an unusual kind of Pop artist and an unusual kind of man.”
—Dwight Garner, The New York Times