JAMES ROSENQUIST: F-111

History is the record of human endeavor. Art and war machines are but two of many categories that describe that endeavor.

History is remembered by the academia, art is remembered by artists, war is remembered by people.

Not its art …… but its wars. Art is not remembered by its paint.

A note to my big brother

These artists and poets and writers want to pour out their hearts and thoughts for someone else to read. We all want to have this collective consciousness and in attempting to do can really put our finger on it. Without credit given beyond my heart and head and somewhat connected way with fingers remember home row and the muscle memory returns to advances I’ve thought I can take credit for. But hold on a minute now.
We like to say things like ‘in these modern times’ un-raw but not un-newsworthy as one man’s treasure becomes another man’s junk. Again, another ash falls from a lit cigarette of which muscle memory and habit is still junk and method to cohere.
Modern time only cluttered a bit more, only a bit more relaxed in the piles of bills scattered or neatly organized between the televisions silence or reminder. Beyond and equally in-between a typo on a social network and aside from the dog needing to be fed by human hand or refrigerators now having their own defrost cycles there is clutter. Away from the decomposition which now in mind’s eye can become reflected upon with much interlude and word and by God given the same breath should the mind and heart be intact beating in the same cycle away from a jogger’s monitor or dialysis machine.
This way I always grab some attention and then prefaced congenially attempt to back up and do what was easier for me to do and point out at the age of twelve negate all of this type of mumbo jumbo. OK, I’ll add that there’s reverse and rewind found on buttons in cars and everything else with pause equaling rest or rather return and burn the candles at both end I do while seeking like the rest for you, not of you.
Agreeing that I’ve come somewhere for you doesn’t necessarily mean I’ve authorized any leadership status amongst you but as your little or older brother or as your father or son or cousin, uncle, friend and so on am attempting not to rant out a complaint about how we are way out of our league. We are not modern at all. We have regressed without the need to philosophically point it out. Just because we can aim a anti air craft missile into the sky and press another button with or without realizing we’ve just lined someone’s pocket on cue in order to build an empire against a cause most aren’t willing to accept doesn’t mean we’ve evolved or the story has changed.
In this story I don’t point at or out anything. I am reminded of the sheer beauty of life and of a forested hilltop and the life that lives within. I am returning from sender to challenge our own beauty and to encompass a treasure golden and priceless and timeless within us all. The diagrams response near the maps and legends of modern man exist still beating smarter and less preoccupied enough now to notice all of the wrong things coming at us at FF speed toward need and greed in a skipped step method. While giving up our land has been thought and brought from times of old into new where defense now rides on the shoulders of babes and in the mouths of fools like it always has. I’m writing to you my sister, or daughter or mother or father or brother or friend in order to meet in the conceptual middle where the truth is good and God Hot in order to remember that science and relativity and coaxial cables connecting my thought to your heart and back to sender isn’t about growing up too fast or too slow but reminding yourself that while you look at the forest and the size and shape of the trees that my roots are asking yours to do, say, speak and think yourself towards the right things because I feel like we’ll all go timber someday. This is not no butterfly song that’s all soft and pretty. Those seasons are brutal and so are ours and the only thing modern about the present time is the gift from the past and besides I really am your brother and sometimes your job isn’t just killing you…..it’s killing us all while ceasing to explain how it is better for us period.

plus ca change…

The designers of the F-111 and other military machines consider them as beautiful as works of art. They are beautiful examples of design, if also machines of war. My father flew the F-111 and many other Air Force planes, he loved the feeling of power and the freedom of flight they enabled. I grew up on an Air Force base in Southern California, and saw a reproduction of this painting hung on base when I was about 7 years old – the Air Force must have had an appreciation for Rosenquist’s work…

No one ever looks at the beauty of war, because we immediately think of its horrors. Although, many famous pieces has captured war into history within its art. Meaning that it details war in a way that is admirable. Again, no one really wants to think of war, but when you think of the art brought by it, such as its war machines, it shows the past’s creativity and astounding works. Not only do we remember it, but we use it to influence greater works in future times. When war machines are thought of, it brings horrific scenes to many, but to others, it brings inspiration through its amazing infrastructure.

Without ART, there is no civilization. Without civilization, there is no history.

I think Rosenquist is only a third of the way there. It may be more accurate to say art, war/gov’t. and religion define history in parallel unison. Yes, art can certainly provide a time reference by virtue of style, artist or subject matter, but more often than not political and religious influence is the catalyst. Think Gothic art, Dada, Pollock.

History is written through its wars but relived through its art

I certainly hope so, ^0^ not weapons

Probably depends on whether you are an art buff or a war buff.

Isn’t the process of making art (and history) partly concerned with boiling the political context down to an artefact or document that becomes a barometer of feeling or opinion about the context that triggered its creation. E.g. Pillars of Society by George Grosz; Front Line Mickey by John Keane; It is what it is by Jeremey Deller; The Greatest Threat: Iraq, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and the Crisis of Global Security by Richard Butler.

This is truly amazing! Thank you MoMA for sharing…

I think it’s entirely up to who is doing the remembering. I don’t think they agree with Mr. Rosenquist at the Pentagon.

I applaud MoMA for bringing Rosenquist’s work and ideas to the forefront. It is good for us to think about the multifaceted nature of our humanity. How ironic that an invention borne from mankind’s aspirations to be closer to the avian world -and god- through flight, continues to be a conduit through which we channel our darkest angels–who sanitize what Tim O’Brien calls “sanctioned homicide”–war.

Picasso, who created one of the world’s most powerful anti-war paintings (Guernica) would most likely agree

Collusion? Note the word “queen” on the hair dryer on the girl’s head, painted in the black space in the middle, in a different tone of black. Did we (do we) subscribe our consumerism and militarism, as something we do for our children? Are they our royalty? Do we do it all for our queen? To keep her safe and happy? Is this what we adults believe is necessary to keep the queen smiling?

Why limit the “collusion” (AMONG) to: Vietnam War, income taxes, consumersim and advertising?…effectively limiting the set of facts and factors to a juxtapostion of pejorative terms possibly reflective of a preconceived notion.

I think somehow the bright colours and fractured images represented relate to the distraction advertising/consumerism puts in place for any person from what is really happening. There isn’t a “natural” link between the above mentioned, instead it is something below the surface as in the instillation F-111.

I often think: “How can there be violence?” “How can there be war?” “Isn’t the human spirit… human?”

Then I think: “Why did my brothers fight?” Then I thought, “Why did my children fight?” Now I think, “Why do my grandchildren fight?”

Have we all just wanted peace, except someone wanted to treat me like a brother, son, grandson?

Today I’m in acceptance. I know: no painting or will or ideology or religion or thesis… will get constant peace or war or good or bad. So we seek our god’s… God’s will be done.

I think I love anything that criticizes war and bad advertising, and questions consumerism and where our dollars go as taxpayers. Sad but illuminating to be reminded how current issues we grapple with were just as resonant 40 years ago…I’m trying to think of other artwork that took on these subjects, hmm. If anyone can think of anything, post it!

Given Rosenquist’s background, the billboard size scale of this piece definitely references advertising. I wonder how many contemporary viewers, who experience so many kinds of advertising, very little of it handmade, still make this connection.