Jim often called his paintings autobiographical and they were. But in his multi-dimensional work he continually merged his personal world with global political concerns – the power of the military industrial complex, the destruction of our environment and human rights for all races and sexes, to name a few. His thoughts could travel in all directions like an outer space traffic pattern, and that ability, paired with his use of visual contradictions, allows meaning to remain elusive. Like Thelonius Monk (whose method of music-making: ‘All ways always’ attracted him). Jim was looking far out there, way into dimensional space that is yet to be defined, happy to keep questions unanswered. The atmosphere of his work is subtle, enigmatic but also dramatic and full of power. These different aspects of his work came naturally, and Jim had a plain-spoken reason for including them, ‘I painted the things that needed painting.’ – Mimi Thompson Rosenquist

We would like to thank Mimi Thompson Rosenquist and the artist’s Estate, and Sarah C. Bancroft, Executive Director and Michael Harrigan, Director of Research, Archives and Catalogue Raisonn. Project, the James Rosenquist Foundation for their support in the exhibition.

James Rosenquist: Visualising the Sixties will be accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue including an essay by art historian Alex J. Taylor, Assistant Professor and Academic Curator at the University of Pittsburgh, who is completing a history of corporate art patronage in the 1960s. His text focuses on Rosenquist's practice in relation to the visual culture and politics of the time, through the lens of optics, televisual techniques and the Vietnam War. It also includes a foreword by Sarah C. Bancroft, who has curated several exhibitions of Rosenquist's work, including the 2003 retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum, New York.