“This was a metaphor for my past life and my future: yesterday, today, and tomorrow.”
—James RosenquistThe largest print ever made at the time of its production, Off the Continental Divide’s scale reflects the magnitude of the decision that inspired it: whether Rosenquist would move to California with his new girlfriend or reside in familiar New York, where he had lived with his wife and son. Rosenquist and his wife Mary Lou Adams had grown distant following their traumatic 1971 Florida car accident, the incident causing Rosenquist great anguish and a sense of needing to escape from the aftermath. “One way or another, you leave your home, you slip off the Continental Divide, which goes east or west… Originally I had decided to go east but now I asked myself, where am I?”i California, the home state of his then-girlfriend, seemed like a preferable option, Rosenquist having first visited California in 1951 at the age of seventeen. Young and wide-eyed, he had been enamored with the idealized California lifestyle: custom cars, surfing, and the Sierras.ii However, it was not an easy choice; Rosenquist would later refer to this period of decision-making as a “critical point” in his life.
Source and Preparatory Sketch for Slipping Off the Continental Divide, 1973. Collage and mixed media on paper. 8 1/4" x 6 5/16" (21.0 x 16.0 cm) - book endpaper; 13 5/16" x 25 3/8" (33.8 x 64.5 cm) - collage element. Destroyed in studio fire 4/25/09. © James Rosenquist Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Used by permission. All rights reserved. On his extensive visit to California with girlfriend Susan Hall, Rosenquist turned her parent’s garage into a workspace and began converting an old barn into a studio before he realized California may not be for him. While the Northern California light was beautiful, the nearby wilderness attractive, he found it difficult to communicate with New York, where both his gallery and the majority of his friends were, on a reasonable timeline. He briefly returned to New York before going back to work with Donald Saff at Graphicstudio in Tampa, where he created the present print. Rosenquist continued traveling back and forth between New York and Florida for the rest of his career, having finally found his new second home in the Sunshine State.
i James Rosenquist, Painting Below Zero: Notes on a Life in Art, 2009, p. 214.
ii Ibid., p. 21.
Exhibited
Cologne, Museum Ludwig, James Rosenquist: Painting as Immersion, November 18, 2017 – March 4, 2018 (this impression)
ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, James Rosenquist: Painting as Immersion, April 14 – August 19, 2018 (this impression)Literature
Esther Sparks 17
Constance Glenn 69 (this impression illustrated, fig. 70, pp. 72-73)
Walter Hopps and Sarah Bancroft, James Rosenquist: A Retrospective, 2003, no. 251, p. 349 (this impression illustrated)
Stephan Diederich and Yilmaz Dziewior, James Rosenquist: Painting as Immersion, 2017, no. 211, p. 201 (this impression illustrated)
223
Off the Continental Divide (S. 17, G. 69)
1973-74
Lithograph in colors, on Japan handmade paper, the full sheet.
S. 42 x 78 1/2 in. (106.7 x 199.4 cm)
Signed, titled, dated and numbered 'artist's proof 1/5' in pencil (the edition was 43), published by Universal Limited Art Editions, West Islip, New York (with their blindstamp), framed.
Estimate
$7,000 - 10,000
Sold for $6,985
Works from the James Rosenquist Estate
New York Auction 15 February 2024
