James Rosenquist Interview (page: 8 / 8) Pop Art Master	Print Interview

Do you think of this experimentation as taking risks?

James Rosenquist: It is. To do things that you feel like doing and not necessarily showing to anyone. A lot of young folks, a lot of young artists, think it's like they're working for a gallery. They make work, make paintings, make things. They send them right to the art gallery, and the gallery sells them or they don't sell them. And there is another thing too, where an artist gets to be extremely successful and his work starts to go for millions, that risk of showing something new is very risky. Because people say, "Well, I didn't like it. I don't think I'm interested in that artist any more."

Is there pressure to keep doing what's already been successful?

James Rosenquist: Some. In the past, you've seen some influence on young artists to continue to do something that they can sell easily. I think if my work would go at a million dollars a crack -- I've had paintings auctioned for over two million, but not straight-out sales of a million dollars -- that I would continue to work as much as I felt like working, and only show a select few out of what I did. I wouldn't even show them to friends probably. Maybe a few.

Why?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. James Rosenquist: When I started painting, and there wasn't much of a market, and there wasn't a big audience, there was a space of time -- maybe a year -- where I worked and they weren't for sale. I didn't have an accountant. I wasn't involved in any business. I mean, having a gallery is putting your work up for sale. Boom! So I didn't have that. And I think that's a strength that a person has. So if someone says, "I don't like that." I say, "Oh, you don't like that? You should see what else you wouldn't like." Because you have something over them. It's that secret life there, somewhere, of these works. And if you want to show them, you can show them something. Instead of baring your soul and showing them everything.

[ Key to Success ] Integrity

I've had over 11 retrospective exhibitions in America and in Europe, Russia. Every show has been far from being a complete retrospective, because lenders wouldn't lend them. So I said, "Well if you think you like this, you should see what isn't here!" So that's another concept.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I was in the Museum of Modern Art at the Cézanne show, and there was a young group of students in there -- two students that said, "Hey! I can do that. I can paint like that." You know, like that. I said, "Oh, you could?" I said, "Could you paint like that if this exhibition was in the next room, and the doors were locked and you weren't able to see it? Then could you paint like that?" "Huh? What do you mean?" So if someone sees something, they can emulate it. You know, copy it. But if they didn't see it, but it was there, like the forest, then that's the hard part.

Creating the original idea?

James Rosenquist: Indeed. Indeed.

Is someone born with the courage to be original, or do you develop it?

James Rosenquist: I don't know. I think part of that can be fate, because you can be subjected to things you don't really want to be subjected to. You could be exposed to life, you have no control over it. And from that comes inspiration. I really couldn't say. I don't think suffering brings about great art. I think if you have a little easier time, you could do better things. I don't think one has to suffer to make art. An example of that is in Israel, where they have suffered for quite a long time, and the art doesn't look so good. The sculpture looks like battlement placements, and it's not happy. It's kind of corny. Some. I'm not saying all of it, but continual war doesn't certainly bring inspiration.

Looking at the ups and downs of your own career, what advice would you have for young people starting out? What do you think are the most important things to keep in mind?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. James Rosenquist: Always, in the back of your mind, plan a special place where you'd like to be. Whether it's mental or physical, for some time in the future, a kind of surroundings you'd like, the kind of life you think you can imagine. The ideal kind of place you would like to live. An ideal kind of work, something like that. So that, for instance, it seems that one's life is always dictated by things. It could be fate, it could be your boss, it could be any kind of thing. And to overcome that by feeling or saying that I know that when I am a little bit older I know where it's going to take me, but I am going to be in a different place than I am now. I don't know if I will like it, but I will wake up there. It's hard to explain. I mean, not hard to explain, it's a rather self-conscious idea about changing yourself from the outside in, or the inside out. And at least knowing you will be in a different environment, or a better place, something like that. It's naïve to think that young suicidal people could just jump on a plane and go somewhere that's nice, and their problems would be solved. But there is a lot of say about environment and peers, peers and environment, which seem to be a dead end. And if one can imagine a place that they might like, they can build it or make it. I think they can fabricate it.

[ Key to Success ] The American Dream

That sounds like a sense that you have some control over your life, instead of just being a victim of circumstance.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. James Rosenquist: Whether you like it or not, after five years passes, after five years go by, you will be five years older. Things may change for the better or they may change for the worse, but you are going to be five years older! Or in ten years you will be ten years older. And in that time, you can be living a much nicer life, a more productive life, more fun, more everything. Or that life will be dictated by someone else. So I've told that to people who work for me. I said, "Hell," I said, "I don't mind if you leave and go on to something else. I like to know successful people." And I've worked with guys, I worked with Fred Clark who used to deliver my paintings in a laundry truck. And now Fred is a big actor in Hollywood. He had a runny nose, and a little son to support, and he was living from hand to mouth, and now his name is Matt Clark and he's been in movies with John Wayne, and he's in movies constantly. He plays judges and tough guys and cowboys and everything like that. It's fun to know happy ending stories, but I also know of stories of people who really have nothing and became successful. That's fun.

[ Key to Success ] Preparation

And it was fun talking to you. Thank you so much.

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