A Complicated Journey: “The North Dakota Mural” Comes Home

By Steve Stark
Contributing Writer
The colorful and magnificent mural that is bound for a home in the Ruth and Seymour Landfield Atrium of the Plains Art Museum was once destroyed by flames and might never had made it to the Red River Valley of the North.

A single, dynamic work of art is elevating F-M’s cultural identity among the vibrant pantheon of pop artists and museums.

Celebrated pop artist James Rosenquist’s ****The North Dakota Mural is the latest and most valuable acquisition by the Plains Art Museum.

But the world-renowned artist and Grand Forks native came very close to having this particular work consumed by flame. And the Museum’s vision, spanning over a dozen years, was nearly destroyed as well.

Fire razed Rosenquist’s Florida studio in 2008, destroying many completed and unfinished works, including the gigantic mural planned for the Plains. Like the Great Fargo Fire that destroyed the city in 1893, the work was painstakingly re-created by Rosenquist , and like a phoenix, rose again.

Museums have long bolstered their reputations with outstanding and ground-breaking collections and individual pieces.

The Rosenquist mural adds enticement to the permanent collection of the Plains because of the international reputation and artistic weight of the artist as well as the unique work itself.

Size alone is one of its visually arresting strengths. Thirteen feet high and 24 feet wide, the massive mural needed a unique gallery space. The atrium of the Plains is ideal for the colorful images from North Dakota that Rosenquist has captured in his bold, bright brushstrokes. 
   
Rosenquist gained world-wide recognition in the world of Pop art with his 1960-era work of brazen, witty, and thought-provoking pieces. His colleagues have included the who’s who of pop art: Andy Warhol, Claus Oldenberg, Roy Lichtenstein and Jasper Johns among others.

Pop art’s roots were British and American in the late 1950s as a creative rebellion alongside the abstract movement. Using everyday objects and images as source material- from comic books to soups cans, and photographs to posters, the highly stylized pop art pieces produced humorous, startling and ultimately iconic images.

Popular images, “pop” for short, became hallmarks of the movement. The individual pop artists explored graphic themes that reflected 1950s, 60s and 70s social and political commentary from beatniks through Viet Nam war protests.

They relied on everyday objects as their subjects, often mingled with seemingly disparate pairings- a painting of a photograph of John F. Kennedy nestled close to a close-up of canned spaghetti, or a single panel of a comic book re-produced in acrylics ten times larger than the original.

The pop art world produced strong, often multiple images of people or objects generally not associated with traditional fine art subjects. In fact, the previous separation of the fine arts and commercial, illustration arts was deliberately challenged by the bold young artists experimenting with pop.

New York’s celebrated Solomon Guggenheim Museum says Rosenquist’s work was vital “in a number of groundbreaking group exhibitions that established pop art as a movement.

“From his early days as a billboard painter to his recent masterful use of abstract painting techniques, Rosenquist has demonstrated his continuing interest in and mastery of color, line, and shape, and continues to dazzle audiences and influence younger generations of artists.”

A space for a Rosenquist work was first considered as the Plains Art Museum was planning its journey from its old home in Moorhead—now the Rourke Gallery—with the controversial leaky roof, to the awaiting and refurbished International Harvester Building on First Avenue in Fargo.

Well-known regional artist Terry Jelsing was curator for the Plains in 1997 and helped initiate the proposal that secured the mural. Jelsing, currently living in his own home/studio in Rugby, N.D., had numerous meetings with Rosenquist during the planning. On October 7, the 13-year-old journey will celebrate its denouement.

Jelsing praises Rosenquist.  “Jim is an extremely perceptive and principled artist,” he says, “His sense and selection of imagery has helped transform American culture.”
Laurel Reuter ,director of the North Dakota Museum of Art on the campus of UND in Grand Forks, has an art professional’s appreciation of the importance of the Rosenquist painting at the Plains, and says she extends congratulations to Jelsing for having his vision realized.

She says the acquisition for the Plains Art Museum is “one more lovely thing that has happened, and historically fortuitous.”

Fargo abstract artist Andrew Stark is currently featured with five paintings on the massive wall in the Landfield atrium. His displayed work may be the last of any other artist’s before Rosenquist’s mural becomes a permanent and compelling fixture of the three-story museum. As an art student earning bachelors and masters fine arts degrees, Stark studied Rosenquist and saw his work in New York art museums.

“(He) is a pioneering figure in the art world”, Stark says, “and this commissioned work is a tribute to the success of the Plains Art Museum.”

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If You Go

What: Unveiling, North Dakota Mural
Where: Plains Art Museum
When: Thurs, Oct 7, 11am  
Info: 701.232.3821