Museum of Art/WSU: Made in U.S.A.: Rosenquist/Ruscha, Prints from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation.

OPENING TODAY!
Made in U.S.A.: Rosenquist/Ruscha
Prints from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation
September 20 – December 14, 2013

This exhibit pairs two of the most influential and complex artists in the Pop art genre, with a selection of prints that span each artist’s career.

So, two Pop artists – one East Coast, the other West Coast; one “hot” the other “cool.” Both James Rosenquist and Ed Ruscha grew up in the mid-west in the 1940’s, but Rosenquist went to New York (from Minnesota) and Ruscha went to Los Angeles (from Oklahoma).

Both artists worked as commercial artists early in their careers: Rosenquist was a billboard painter; Ruscha a layout artist for an advertising agency. Both artists revel in the mind-opening poetics of ordinary everyday imagery: Rosenquist in his wild smash-ups of seemingly disjointed imagery; Ruscha in his use of words as image.

You could say that Rosenquist expressed the intense compression of imagery he encountered in New York, while Ruscha responded to the more isolated, horizontal and open spaces of Southern California.

Both artists have made prints in parallel to their paintings, throughout their long careers.

All works in the exhibition come from the vast collection of contemporary prints and multiples from Jordan D. Schnitzer and the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation. We are grateful for his passion for art and his generous loans so our audience can experience such a wide range of work by these two modern masters.

* The Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation makes it collections of post-war prints and multiples available without exhibition fees and institutions have the opportunity to request grants to underwrite educational and outreach activities. The collection is conceived of as a ‘lending library’ with its mission to loan and exhibit contemporary prints and multiples in order to further appreciate the artists of our time.

The Museum of Art is located on Wilson Road across from Martin Stadium in the Fine Arts Center on the WSU Pullman campus. Gallery hours are Monday – Saturday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., open until 7 p.m. on Thursdays and closed on Sundays. For more information please contact the museum at (509) 335-1910 or visit our website at museum.wsu.edu.