James Rosenquist Quotes

It fascinates me to create beautiful paintings with the simplest means.

We are attacked by radio and television and visual communication at such speed and with such force that painting seems very old fashioned ...why shouldn't it be done with that power and gusto [of advertising], with that impact.

I'm always trying to do things that no one has ever seen before.

I tell young people that the greatest paintings in museums are made with minerals mixed in oil smeared on cloth with the hair from the back of a pig's ear. It's that simple.

In many ways my paintings are about energy — both in how they are created and the image itself.

I think being an artist is having the courage to be original. Many great artists, including Picasso, have all been influenced by the great master paintings... And then finally, they leap, they take off... they become themselves. Then it looks like they just came out of nowhere. Just like 'Pow!'

I was probably born with the ability to draw, but that does not make you an artist.

Paintings are memories. Memories of the painter who painted them. Memories that can be shared as well. Paintings are things to remember things by.

History is remembered by its art, not its war machines.