James Rosenquist’s ‘F-111 (south) (west) (north) (east) (G. 73)’ Artnet's 'Work of the Week'
It’s a James Rosenquist moment in New York, with one monumental painting installed in the lobby of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and another on view at Castelli Gallery.
At Phillips, the artist’s estate offered for sale 50 prints to raise money for its grant-making activities. Every single one found a buyer. The top lot was F-111 (south) (west) (north) (east) (G. 73), a quartet of lithographs from 1974 based on one of the late artist’s most iconic works. The group totaled $228,600 (including fees), more than four times the high estimate of $50,000 and was the top lot of the auction, which presented a chronological evolution of the artist’s printmaking from 1965 to 2012.
The original F-111 (1964-65) has a full gallery to itself at the MoMA, where it’s currently on view. Painted during the Vietnam War, the 86-foot-wide tour de force matches the length of its namesake fighter-bomber, which was then in development. It’s an immersive installation and commentary on consumerism and pop culture.
The titles of the individual prints of F-111—south, west, north, and east—reference the immersive compositional configuration of the original painting.
The artist, who died in 2017, remains shockingly undervalued next to peers like Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, and Roy Lichtenstein—his auction record to date is just $3.3 million. Rosenquist’s annual auction sales have been erratic, spiking to almost $8 million in 2014 and 2019 and retreating to $3.6 million in 2023.
