James Rosenquist, Fahrenheit 1982 (Hand Signed card), from the Estate of UACC President Cordelia Platt, 1982

James Rosenquist

Fahrenheit 1982 (Hand Signed card), 1982

Offset lithograph card

4 1/4 × 10 inches

Boldly signed in black marker by James Rosenquist on the bottom center of the image

This offset lithograph card is boldly signed in black marker on the recto (image part of the card) by James Rosenquist. It depicts Rosenquist's opus magnus "Fahrenheit 1982" in the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum. The first part of the title is an allusion to Ray Bradbury's 1953 novel "Fahrenheit 451", a dystopian view of the future United States - a title that would later inspire filmmakers like Michael Moore. But first there was Rosenquist's Fahrenheit 1982 Here's how the Whitney describes this work:

"Although James Rosenquist’s paintings of the 1980s exhibited a newly aggressive tone, they featured many of the same elements that secured his reputation as a foremost Pop artist in the early 1960s: disorienting juxtapositions of enlarged fragments of images that were, in his words, “apart from nature.” Borrowed from photographs and magazine reproductions, they acknowledge the saturation of everyday American life by the mass media. Fahrenheit 1982 Degrees is typical of Rosenquist’s long, mural-size works, in which ordinary items assume heroic proportions, such as the polished fingernail that mysteriously metamorphoses into the tip of a fountain pen. The painting’s hot pink and red palette, as well as its assortment of phallic lipsticks that project toward the surface like bullets, charge the image with an erotic force whose power is accentuated by notations of motion, such as the swirling loops around the finger..."

Provenance of this signed card is excellent: it is from the Estate and private autograph collection of Cordelia Platt. Highly regarded in the autograph industry, Cordelia was the president of the UACC (United Autograph Collectors Club) and a well known dealer for many years. She was official authenticator of Marilyn Monroe. This piece was in Ms. Platt's private collection for 20 years before it was sold. This work is unframed. Authenticity guaranteed.