15 Years Magnified Through a Drop of Water
James Rosenquist
American, 1933–2017
1972-73
A lithograph in which James Rosenquist magnifies a rainbow-hued numeral 5 trapped in a luminous, glassy drop of water to collapse commercial signage, scale, and perception into a single dazzling image.
What hits you first is the iridescent, billboard-like 5 floating inside a glossy, planet-like sphere whose marbled highlights and thick, brushy indigo field around it make the print feel both magnified and cinematic.
Made at the height of Pop art, this print shows Rosenquist’s tactic of elevating advertising imagery and using printmaking’s painterly effects to question how familiar signs shape time, scale, and everyday experience.
Medium
Lithograph
Dimensions
irreg composition 18 5/16 x 14 3/8" (46.5 x 36.5 cm)
sheet 22 7/16 x 15 5/16" (57 x 38.9 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Celeste Bartos
Accession
388.1973
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
