Aarhus – Aros (Rosenquist)

[I originally posted this in April 2018, but I’ve reposted it with the image links fixed]

One of the displays at the gallery, which is a special exhibition, are works by James Rosenquist. The information provided by the gallery tells me that there can be hardly anyone who hasn’t heard of him and his work. I had never heard of him or his work, although I’ve heard of the Pop Art movement and Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein which is at least something.

I had no idea of what was going on with a lot of these artworks, they were bright and colourful, but I couldn’t understand the meaning behind any of them. The gallery has a little book for visitors which tries to explain the concept of the works, but I’m not entirely convinced that they knew either.

The artist died a few years ago, and there was a serious fire at his house in 2009 which destroyed some of his artworks. He’s clearly a hugely influential artist though, with the large scale of his works being particularly interesting. One day I might understand the meaning behind all of these artworks though, as sadly I didn’t have any clue about their message or if there was a message.