Timeline

1933

Born November 29 in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Parents Louis and Ruth Rosenquist of Swedish descent. Family settles in Minneapolis in 1942

1948

Won junior high school scholarship to study art at the Minneapolis School of Art

1952 - 1954

Attended the University of Minneapolis and studied with Cameron Booth. Visited The Art Institute of Chicago to study old masters and 19th century paintings. Painted storage bins, grain elevators, and gasoline tanks during the summer. Works for General Outdoor Advertising, Minneapolis and painted commercial billboards

1955

Received scholarship to the Art Students League, New York: studies with Morris Kantor, George Grosz and Edwin Dickinson

1957 - 1959

Became a member of the International Sign, Pictorial and Display Union, local 230. Employed by A.H. Villerpigue, Inc., General Outdoor Advertising, Brooklyn, and Artkraft Strauss Sign Corporation. Painted billboards in the Times Square area and other parts of New York

1960

Quit working for Artkraft Strauss Sign Corporation. rents a loft at 3- Coenties Slip; neighbours include painters Jack Youngerman, Ellsworth Kelly, and Robert Indiana

1961

Painted ’Zone’ (1961), first studio painting to employ commercial techniques

1963

Commissioned by Philip Johnson to paint mural for the New York World’s Fair, New York State Pavilion. exhibits in ‘Americans 1963’ at the Museum of Modern Art in the ’Six painters and the object’ at the Solomon R Guggenheim museum

1967

Moved to Long Island

1975

Lobbied in Washington, D.C. with Marion Javits and Robert Rauschenberg for a law to allow artists to get a 15% royalty after the art work has been resold

1976

Built a house and studio with Gilbert Flores, architect, in Aripeka, FL

1977

Purchased building on Chamber Street, NY. In Florida, painted a number of 15 feet paintings for Leo Castelli

1978

Appointed to six-year term as member of the National Council on the Arts, Washington, D.C.

1980

Painted ‘Star Thief’, 17’ x 46’

1986

F-111 is sold at Sotheby’s for $2.09 million for the estate of Robert C. Scull

1987

Nominated into the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York

1988

Received Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement, Nashville, Tennessee. Exhibits ‘Through the Eye of the Needle to the Anvil’ (1988), 17’ x 46’, at Leo Castelli gallery, New York

1998

Completed ceiling mural for the Palais de Chaillot in Paris for the 50th anniversary signing of the Rights of Man by Eleanor Roosevelt

Lives and works in Aripeka, Florida, USA