Alphabet Avalanche

James Rosenquist

1979

A bold mixed-media work in lithograph and screenprint with cut-and-folded paper in which Rosenquist assembles oversized, billboard-like fragments into a dynamic, cinematic collage that collapses advertising graphics and abstraction into a single visual event.

You first notice two fan-shaped, wheel-like forms—one a kaleidoscope of multicolored stripes, the other a pale radial fan—dramatically split by a fiery, stair-step diagonal across a marbled indigo field, while the folded paper edges and printed texture make the image pop off the sheet.

A late-1970s example of Pop art’s expansion, this piece uses commercial print techniques and physical manipulation to translate billboard scale and advertising imagery into fine art, pushing printmaking toward theatrical, sculptural possibilities.

Palette

Art Terms

Pop art Lithography Silkscreen Print Assemblage Collage Appropriation

Exhibitions

American Prints from the International Program

1971

Rauschenberg, 34 Drawings for Dante's "Inferno" and Selections from...

1988

Pop Art Prints, Drawings, and Multiples

1970

Prints of the Sixties

1973