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“Printmaking is something that [Rosenquist] excelled at…but I think his first love was always painting, and he approached this series as a painter, strong and sure as a painter, not as a graphic artist.”
—Ken Tyler, Tyler Graphics master printer James Rosenquist and Ken Tyler’s print collaboration can only be described as monumental, not only in the remarkable scale of the final products, but in their experimental contributions to the medium of printmaking. Ken Tyler, master printer and founder of Tyler Graphics in Mount Kisco, New York, customized his printmaking studio to allow Rosenquist to produce the highly complex body of prints, more ambitious and larger in size than anyone had produced up to that point in the history of the medium. The idea for such a tremendous series began simply but pivotally; after lunch and an initial tour of the Mount Kisco facilities, Tyler asked Rosenquist what he wanted to do: “I want to make prints as big as paintings,” Rosenquist answered. Tyler decisively replied, “O.K. I’ll make the biggest pieces of handmade paper you’ve ever seen.”iTogether, they conceived of and executed the extraordinarily striking nine works that became the epic Welcome to the Water Planet series, persevering to achieve their ambitious goal with the help of a staggering 270,000 gallons of paper pulp, around 700 sheets of colossally-sized paper, and an industrious team of nine to twenty-six people working on each piece at a time, all over the course of the approximate year that Rosenquist worked at Tyler Graphics. Each more inventive than the last, the nine immense works manifests Rosenquist’s longstanding desire to imbue printmaking with the painterly boldness his work typically exemplified, utilizing the resources and ingenuity of Tyler Graphics to enliven the medium with unconventional techniques and brilliant results. Four of those monumental works are featured in the present sale: The Bird of Paradise Approaches the Hot Water Planet, Time Door Time D’Or (lot 240), Space Dust (lot 241), and Caught One Lost One for the Fast Student or Star Catcher (lot 242).
James Rosenquist working on Time Dust at Tyler Graphics Ltd., Mount Kisco, New York, 1992. Photographer: Marabeth Cohen-Tyler Rosenquist began work in the Mount Kisco while ruminating on his concern for the Earth as the only planet in the universe known at the time to contain water. The artist recounted that first session in the studio: “I brought [Tyler] one collage, and he said, ‘That’s all you got?’ I said, ‘Ok, maybe I’ll bring in another one!’”ii Following these early sessions, The Bird of Paradise Approaches the Hot Water Planet was the first work Rosenquist and Tyler tackled together; this visual feat of color and texture depicts the figure of a bird landing on a new world landscape, the only hint of water referenced in the slashes of blue which, upon closer inspection, reveal the eyes of a woman. Considering his inspiration for this psychedelic, interplanetary scene, Rosenquist recollected, “the imagery that occurred to me seemed like a water nymph hiding in a water lily while some star nova or nuclear thing went by far away. And also the idea, welcome to the water planet, was a ‘welcome.’ It was sort of against chauvinism.”v
Source for The Bird of Paradise Approaches the Hot Water Planet and Untitled, 1988. Magazine clippings, photocopy, and mixed media on unidentified clipping. 11 5/8" x 10" (29.5 x 25.4 cm). Private Collection.
© James Rosenquist, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Used by permission. All rights reserved.However, the process to realize such stunning and complex results was initially riddled with challenges, setbacks, and failures as the team ideated on how to achieve Rosenquist’s ambitious vision of this phoenix-like bird arriving to the foreign planet. The work’s “porridge-like” paper pulp, as Rosenquist called it, at first proved to be entirely resistant to retaining any color added to it, bleeding uncontrollably down and through the paper: “It looked like a quarter-inch thick rug made out of mush.”iii Even Tyler’s typically reliable five by ten-foot lithography and etching press faced malfunctions, Tyler affectionately recalling that Rosenquist nicknamed the apparatus “Double Trouble” for the trouble it presented from the very first day of working on the series.iv
Rosenquist working on The Bird of Paradise Approaches the Hot Water Planet (1989), Tyler Graphics Ltd., Mount Kisco, New York, 1989. Courtesy of the Estate of James Rosenquist. The project began to come together when the ever-pioneering Tyler devised the brilliant idea to use a pattern pistol – a spray gun commercially used for coloring stucco ceilings – to apply pigment directly onto the pressed paper. Rosenquist was delighted by this innovation and quickly got to work mixing and testing colors to find the perfect level of vibrance in each hue. The team cut an individual stencil from thick Lexan for each color, and where they were meant to mingle on the paper, Rosenquist would use a ladle or eye dropper to apply the color to the paper with utmost care and attention, sometimes even opting to drop puddles of color to the pulp with his fingers. As a result, though the lithographic elements are identical between each edition, their dazzlingly colored paper pulp backgrounds vary from impression to impression. The gorgeous and arresting nature of The Bird of Paradise Approaches the Hot Water Planet, as the first work Rosenquist and Tyler undertook for the Welcome to the Water Planet series stands as a testament to both artists' tenacious spirits as printmaking trailblazers, representing the emergence of historically fresh and creatively avant-garde methodologies of printing.
i Judith Goldman, James Rosenquist: Welcome to the Water Planet and House of Fire, 1988 – 1989, p. 14.
ii James Rosenquist in an interview with curator Jane Kinsman, Aripeka, Florida, May 2006.
iii Ibid.
iv Ken Tyler quoted in National Gallery Australia, Rosenquist, 2013, video.
v Mary Anne Staniszewski and James Rosenquist, BOMB, No. 21 (Fall, 1987), p. 25.
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
Constance Glenn 214
Stephan Diederich and Yilmaz Dziewior, James Rosenquist: Painting as Immersion, 2017, no. 32, pp. 66-67 (this impression illustrated)
239
The Bird of Paradise Approaches the Hot Water Planet, from Welcome to the Water Planet (G. 214)
1989
Monumental pressed paper pulp print in colors, on two sheets of TGL handmade paper, with lithographic collage, on Rives BFK paper, the full sheets.
S. 96 x 84 1/2 in. (243.8 x 214.6 cm)
Signed, titled, dated and numbered 1/28 in pencil (there were also 10 artist's proofs), published by Tyler Graphics, Ltd., Mount Kisco, New York, framed.
Estimate
$8,000 - 12,000
Sold for $44,450
Works from the James Rosenquist Estate
New York Auction 15 February 2024
200
James Rosenquist
Circles of Confusion, from 11 Pop Artists, Volume I (G. 10)
Estimate $800 - 1,200
Sold for $2,794
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201
James Rosenquist
Whipped Butter for Eugene Ruchin, from 11 Pop Artists, Volume II (G. 11)
Estimate $400 - 600
Sold for $3,556
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202
James Rosenquist
For Love, from 11 Pop Artists, Volume III (G. 13)
Estimate $1,000 - 2,000
Sold for $2,540
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203
James Rosenquist
F-111 (Leo Castelli Gallery)
Estimate $800 - 1,200
Sold for $6,350
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204
James Rosenquist
A Drawing While Waiting for an Idea (S. 6, G. 14)
Estimate $800 - 1,200
Sold for $2,794
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205
James Rosenquist
Morning Mirror (G. 15)
Estimate $600 - 900
Sold for $2,286
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206
James Rosenquist
Circles of Confusion & Lite Bulb
Estimate $600 - 900
Sold for $3,556
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207
James Rosenquist
Small Doorstop
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $95,250
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208
James Rosenquist
Forehead I; and Forehead II (G. 20 & 21)
Estimate $2,000 - 3,000
Sold for $3,048
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209
James Rosenquist
See-Saw, Class Systems (G. 22)
Estimate $500 - 700
Sold for $2,794
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210
James Rosenquist
Night Smoke II (S. 15, G. 26)
Estimate $1,500 - 2,500
Sold for $3,302
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211
James Rosenquist
Spaghetti (G. 31)
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000
Sold for $10,795
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212
James Rosenquist
Tumbleweed (G. 32)
Estimate $600 - 900
Sold for $889
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213
James Rosenquist
Delivery Hat, from Cold Light Suite (G. 35)
Estimate $400 - 600
Sold for $1,651
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214
James Rosenquist
Mirrored Flag; Moon Beam Mistaken for the News; and Cold Light, from Cold Light Suite (G. 37-38 & 40)
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000
Sold for $7,620
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215
James Rosenquist
Earth and Moon, from Cold Light Suite (G. 43)
Estimate $800 - 1,200
Sold for $5,715
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216
James Rosenquist
Pulling Out (G. 47)
Estimate $600 - 900
Sold for $3,048
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217
James Rosenquist
Hey! Let's Go for a Ride (G. 55)
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000
Sold for $9,525
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218
James Rosenquist
Brighter than the Sun (G. 57)
Estimate $600 - 900
Sold for $3,048
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219
James Rosenquist
Short Schedule (S. 1972.05, G. 61)
Estimate $500 - 700
Sold for $2,540
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220
James Rosenquist
Banner #1
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000
Sold for $3,302
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221
James Rosenquist
Banner #2
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000
Sold for $9,525
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222
James Rosenquist
First [When was the first time you had your eyes examined?] (G. 64)
Estimate $800 - 1,200
Sold for $2,286
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223
James Rosenquist
Off the Continental Divide (S. 17, G. 69)
Estimate $7,000 - 10,000
Sold for $6,985
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224
James Rosenquist
F-111 (south) (west) (north) (east) (G. 73)
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $228,600
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225
James Rosenquist
Tampa—New York 1188 (G. 81)
Estimate $2,000 - 3,000
Sold for $9,525
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226
James Rosenquist
Head Stand (G. 777, G. 104)
Estimate $800 - 1,200
Sold for $2,286
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227
James Rosenquist
Terrarium (G. 154)
Estimate $1,000 - 1,500
Sold for $2,286
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228
James Rosenquist
Industrial Cottage (G. 159)
Estimate $1,000 - 1,500
Sold for $2,286
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229
James Rosenquist
Sheer Line (S. 1979.41, G. 163)
Estimate $800 - 1,200
Sold for $4,826
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230
James Rosenquist
Idea I; and Idea II (G. 165 & 166)
Estimate $600 - 900
Sold for $1,397
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231
James Rosenquist
Doorskin (G. 168)
Estimate $1,000 - 2,000
Sold for $1,651
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232
James Rosenquist
Chambers (S. 19, G. 173)
Estimate $800 - 1,200
Sold for $1,270
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233
James Rosenquist
Dog Descending a Staircase (S. 20, G. 174)
Estimate $6,000 - 9,000
Sold for $16,510
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234
James Rosenquist
High Technology and Mysticism: A Meeting Point (G. 180-186)
Estimate $4,000 - 6,000
Sold for $4,826
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235
James Rosenquist
The Glass Wishes: eight plates (G. 1014-1016, 1018-1019, 1021, 1023 & 1024, G. 187-189, 191-192, 194, 196 & 197)
Estimate $4,000 - 6,000
Sold for $3,810
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236
James Rosenquist
The Kabuki Blushes, from Secrets in Carnations (G. 206)
Estimate $2,000 - 3,000
Sold for $7,620
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237
James Rosenquist
Welcome to the Water Planet (G. 211)
Estimate $4,000 - 6,000
Sold for $10,160
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238
James Rosenquist
The Prickly Dark (G. 212)
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000
Sold for $6,096
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239
James Rosenquist
The Bird of Paradise Approaches the Hot Water Planet, from Welcome to the Water Planet (G. 214)
Estimate $8,000 - 12,000
Sold for $44,450
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240
James Rosenquist
Time Door Time D'Or, from Welcome to the Water Planet (G. 218)
Estimate $10,000 - 15,000
Sold for $30,480
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241
James Rosenquist
Space Dust, from Welcome to the Water Planet (G. 219)
Estimate $10,000 - 15,000
Sold for $21,590
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242
James Rosenquist
Caught One Lost One for the Fast Student or Star Catcher, from Welcome to the Water Planet (G. 222)
Estimate $2,000 - 3,000
Sold for $7,620
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243
James Rosenquist
House of Fire (G. 223)
Estimate $15,000 - 25,000
Sold for $25,400
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244
James Rosenquist
The Light Bulb Shining (G. 228)
Estimate $2,500 - 3,500
Sold for $7,620
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245
James Rosenquist
Speed of Light
Estimate $15,000 - 25,000
Sold for $39,370
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246
James Rosenquist
The Stowaway Peers Out at the Speed of Light
Estimate $15,000 - 25,000
Sold for $27,940
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247
James Rosenquist
The Xenophobic Movie Director or Our Foreign Policy
Estimate $7,000 - 9,000
Sold for $6,985
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248
James Rosenquist
The Memory Continues but the Clock Disappears
Estimate $2,000 - 3,000
Sold for $10,160
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249
James Rosenquist
Time Lines
Estimate $2,000 - 3,000
Sold for $7,938
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