NEW YORK.- The launch of the first official website devoted to the work of famed artist James Rosenquist http://www.jimrosenquist-artist.com includes the most up-to-date information about the artist obtained directly from Rosenquist’s personal archive. 

The site, designed by Web-BLT, Inc., contains a comprehensive history of the artist’s career.  In addition to detailing Mr. Rosenquist’s biography and exhibition history, the site presents nearly 100 key works from the Rosenquist archive. Organizing works by the studio in which they were painted, the website provides insight into his creative process and illustrates the increasing scale of his paintings. 

The selection of works displays Mr. Rosenquist’s continual experimentation with ideas and painting methods. The website also showcases current works, emphasizing his ongoing evolution as an artist. Currently Mr. Rosenquist’s works are exhibited in various venues in New York City featuring a lifetime retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum until January 25, 2004. He also will be featured in an interview with Morley Safer on CBS Sunday Morning about his retrospective at the Guggenheim which is scheduled to air on November 16, 2003. 

Mr. Rosenquist is one of the major figures in contemporary art. His career spans over 40 years and encompasses a wide range of thematic elements. While producing abstract paintings in the late 1950s, he supported himself as a billboard painter working in and around New York City’s Times Square.  By 1960 he began to combine fragmented advertising imagery and commercial painting techniques in his own paintings.  His work also took on the scale of the billboard and by 1965 had expanded to completely fill all four walls of the Leo Castelli Gallery with his 10’ x 86’ tour de force painting entitled F-111. 

The official James Rosenquist website was created because Mr. Rosenquist wanted to establish an internet presence where accurate information could be found about his past work and career, thereby correcting the inaccuracies found on many other websites. The website also seeks to educate and inform a worldwide audience on the ongoing career of Mr. Rosenquist with periodic updates. 

The website offers individuals and institutions access to Mr. Rosenquist and/or his official archive to ask specific questions relating to his work and career, including a Catalogue Raisonne section for those who already own a Rosenquist work and wish to communicate with the archive. 

Mr. Rosenquist is represented by the Bernard Jacobson Gallery in New York City and London as well as Universal Limited Art Editions in Long Island, N.Y. 

Web-BLT, an interactive agency based in New York, created innovative digital design for the Rosenquist site. Using Flash technology, the site presents Rosenquist’s paintings in a dynamic way. The site contains a feature that allows users to view details of Rosenquist’s large-scale works. Major four-wall installation pieces such as F-111 and Horse Blinders are presented in virtual rooms reminiscent of the way in which they have been displayed in exhibitions. These unique features provide an engaging, informative look into the artist’s work.