James Rosenquist (1933-2017)

“I began to think about the idea of viewing an artwork, where the old saying “what you see is what you get,” “less is more,” is now with my paintings…abstract paintings. Instead of “what you see is what you get,” “what you see is what you don’t get!” What you are “getting is the artist’s experience layered upon layer with the last brushstroke of this painting. So you are actually getting more, but you don’t see it. What you are seeing is the residue of the artist’s experience from the person’s whole life, and that is something you don’t know about. You don’t understand the knowledge of the artist, you only see what’s on the surface.”

James Rosenquist in conversation with William Jeffett, 28 February 2001.