James Rosenquist - Works from the James Rosenquist Estate New York Thursday, February 15, 2024 | Phillips

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  • “Space travel is at the intersection between technology and imagination but, like anything the government or the military is involved in, it’s an ambivalent enterprise – it has the potential for both transcendence and Star Wars type destruction.”
    —James Rosenquist
    Space Dust represents a point of departure for Rosenquist in the Welcome to the Water Planet series. Rather than containing his collage to the rectangular borders of the picture plane, he brings the lithograph elements past the bottom edge of the paper and off the page entirely. This formal shift, like every innovation Rosenquist had made thus far, demonstrates his desire to transcend traditional printmaking techniques. Rosenquist was additionally inspired by the innovation of other artists working at Tyler Graphics. Ken Tyler reflected on this influence on Rosenquist: “[Jim] had been looking at the shop and looking at various things that were taking place with other artists and deciding that, [in] the décollages of Frank Stella, [if] we were able to take things off the edge, why couldn’t he?” 

     

    Frank Stella, Then Came Death and Took the Butcher, from Illustrations after El Lissitzsky's Had Gadya (A. 179), 1984, Phillips, Editions & Works on Paper, April 20-22, 2021. Artwork: © 2024 Frank Stella / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

    Following its completion, Space Dust became the initial face of the series, serving as the sole image on the exhibition poster for the first show of the Welcome to the Water Planet prints at Heland Wetterling Gallery in Stockholm, shown immediately after its completion from 12 December 1989 to 28 January 1990. This feature upon the poster substantiates the magnificent effect of the print; the confidence with which Rosenquist handles the background color, the vibrancy and variation of the fiery cloud of “dust” against the deep, inky black, was met with adoration by its first audience and still maintains the same visually striking impact today. 

    • Literature

      Constance Glenn 219

241

Space Dust, from Welcome to the Water Planet (G. 219)

1989
Monumental pressed paper pulp print in colors, on TGL handmade paper, with lithographic collage, on Rives BFK paper, the full sheet.
S. 66 1/2 x 104 3/4 in. (168.9 x 266.1 cm)
Signed, titled, dated and numbered 4/56 in pencil (there were also 14 artist's proofs), published by Tyler Graphics, Ltd., Mount Kisco, New York, framed.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$10,000 - 15,000 

Sold for $21,590

Works from the James Rosenquist Estate

New York Auction 15 February 2024