GENERAL DESCRIPTION
James Rosenquist's Paper Clip prominently features the red flying horse (corporate logo of the Mobil Oil Company and a beacon to travelers for decades) that adorns a high-rise in downtown Dallas, Texas. Upside-down letters at the top of the canvas read "THIS IS LOVE IN 1971." Below appear a wallet, a roll of cash-register tape and a receipt, a pair of gesturing hands (one holding the band bearing the message), and a paper clip that seems to bind the work together. Rosenquist's integration of a commercial symbol into a gigantic field of diversely scaled objects typifies the artist's work. Like Robert Rauschenberg [1986.8.A-B], Jess [1977.15] and Wallace Berman [1974.49], Rosenquist suggests narrative by combining images and text.
Rosenquist's career as a billboard painter is clearly evident in this work. The large painting is composed of four equal-sized vertical rectangles artfully fused into a single plane, while the artist's knowledge of the techniques and meanings of billboard-sized images makes good use of the seductive power of imagery at massive scale. Rosenquist became one of the most important pop artists of the early 1960s to scan the new consumerist media industry for inspiration. In Paper Clip, the power of money is strongly suggested by the stuffed wallet, and the price of life tallies symbolically with the cash-register tape. Here we see only the raw materials of the good life promised by advertising, ironically enlarged to roadside scale. In this provocative jumble of advertising and feature-story pictures, Rosenquist creates possible meanings where none before existed.
Adapted from
Charles Wylie, "Paper Clip," in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, ed. Charles Venable (New Haven, NJ: Yale University Press, 1997), 284.
NOTES
- fun fact source: looks like old label copy, sheet found in object file
- James Rosenquist culls imagery from diverse sources such as fashion, lifestyle, and news magazines (and, later, his own photographs) to create engaging compositions. Like some of the other artists associated with pop art, Rosenquist had experience in commercial art as a sign and billboard painter. This training inspired him to explore the ad industry for inspiration in his work of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s.
- Paper Clip is an example of a pop art painting with strongly implied social commentary. Even more than Mouth #11, also in this gallery, Paper Clip is billboard-like in scale and graphic clarity, and its images are drawn from daily life—ticker tape, paper clips, Mobil Oil Company's Flying Red Horse. These elements, taken out of context, magnified, and given allegorical power, create an epic view of industrial society that some might find at once trivial and irresistible.
- Jeffrey Grove, From "Highlights from the Contemporary Collection" (September 25, 2011 - November 27, 2011 | Hoffman Galleries), 2011
- Few modern American artists feel at home in a mass civilization. Their visions of it range form mild criticism to political castigation. James Rosenquist's "Paper Clip" is an example of a Pop Art painting with strongly implied social commentary. Even more than "Mouth #11", "Paper Clip" approximates to a billboard in its great size and clean, sharply defined shapes, but images are elements of ordinary life -- ticker tape, paper clips, Mobil Oil Company's Flying Red Horse - taken out of context, magnified, and given allegorical power. It is an epic view of industrial society, where people live in the power of forces at once trivial and irresistible.
- Anne R. Bromberg, Dallas Museum of Art: Selected Works (Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art, 1983), 174.
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Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
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Historical periods
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PROVENANCE
Before 1978: Leo Castelli Gallery, New York [1]
From 1978: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, gift of The 500, Inc., Elizabeth B. Blake, Mr. and Mrs. James H.W. Jacks, Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Meltzer, Mr. Joshua Muss, Mrs. John W. O'Boyle, Dr. Joanne Stroud and two anonymous donors in honor of Robert M. Murdock. [2]
[1] Acquisition Record, Collections Records Object File [1978.28]
[2] The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.
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FUN FACTS
- The imagery in this work may be personal for the artist: on the night of February 12, 1971, Rosenquist, his wife, and his son were involved in a tragic automobile accident. His wife and his son were both seriously injured and they fell deeply into debt.
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General Description
James Rosenquist's Paper Clip prominently features the red flying horse (corporate logo of the Mobil Oil Company and a beacon to travelers for decades) that adorns a high-rise in downtown Dallas, Texas. Upside-down letters at the top of the canvas read "THIS IS LOVE IN 1971." Below appear a wallet, a roll of cash-register tape and a receipt, a pair of gesturing hands (one holding the band bearing the message), and a paper clip that seems to bind the work together. Rosenquist's integration of a commercial symbol into a gigantic field of diversely scaled objects typifies the artist's work. Like Robert Rauschenberg [1986.8.A-B], Jess [1977.15] and Wallace Berman [1974.49], Rosenquist suggests narrative by combining images and text.
Rosenquist's career as a billboard painter is clearly evident in this work. The large painting is composed of four equal-sized vertical rectangles artfully fused into a single plane, while the artist's knowledge of the techniques and meanings of billboard-sized images makes good use of the seductive power of imagery at massive scale. Rosenquist became one of the most important pop artists of the early 1960s to scan the new consumerist media industry for inspiration. In Paper Clip, the power of money is strongly suggested by the stuffed wallet, and the price of life tallies symbolically with the cash-register tape. Here we see only the raw materials of the good life promised by advertising, ironically enlarged to roadside scale. In this provocative jumble of advertising and feature-story pictures, Rosenquist creates possible meanings where none before existed.
Adapted from
Charles Wylie, "Paper Clip," in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, ed. Charles Venable (New Haven, NJ: Yale University Press, 1997), 284.
Fun Facts
- The imagery in this work may be personal for the artist: on the night of February 12, 1971, Rosenquist, his wife, and his son were involved in a tragic automobile accident. His wife and his son were both seriously injured and they fell deeply into debt.
Archival Resources
Web Resources
Notes
- fun fact source: looks like old label copy, sheet found in object file
- James Rosenquist culls imagery from diverse sources such as fashion, lifestyle, and news magazines (and, later, his own photographs) to create engaging compositions. Like some of the other artists associated with pop art, Rosenquist had experience in commercial art as a sign and billboard painter. This training inspired him to explore the ad industry for inspiration in his work of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s.
- Paper Clip is an example of a pop art painting with strongly implied social commentary. Even more than Mouth #11, also in this gallery, Paper Clip is billboard-like in scale and graphic clarity, and its images are drawn from daily life—ticker tape, paper clips, Mobil Oil Company's Flying Red Horse. These elements, taken out of context, magnified, and given allegorical power, create an epic view of industrial society that some might find at once trivial and irresistible.
- Jeffrey Grove, From "Highlights from the Contemporary Collection" (September 25, 2011 - November 27, 2011 | Hoffman Galleries), 2011
- Few modern American artists feel at home in a mass civilization. Their visions of it range form mild criticism to political castigation. James Rosenquist's "Paper Clip" is an example of a Pop Art painting with strongly implied social commentary. Even more than "Mouth #11", "Paper Clip" approximates to a billboard in its great size and clean, sharply defined shapes, but images are elements of ordinary life -- ticker tape, paper clips, Mobil Oil Company's Flying Red Horse - taken out of context, magnified, and given allegorical power. It is an epic view of industrial society, where people live in the power of forces at once trivial and irresistible.
- Anne R. Bromberg, Dallas Museum of Art: Selected Works (Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art, 1983), 174.
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
Before 1978: Leo Castelli Gallery, New York [1]
From 1978: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, gift of The 500, Inc., Elizabeth B. Blake, Mr. and Mrs. James H.W. Jacks, Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Meltzer, Mr. Joshua Muss, Mrs. John W. O'Boyle, Dr. Joanne Stroud and two anonymous donors in honor of Robert M. Murdock. [2]
[1] Acquisition Record, Collections Records Object File [1978.28]
[2] The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.
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