Visiting Jim Rosenquist and the North Dakota Mural

Jim Rosenquist and Colleen Sheehy in front of "The North Dakota Mural"

On March 8, our Director of Collections, Mark Ryan, and I visited the painter James

Rosenquist in Tampa, Florida, to see the large mural that he had recently completed as a commission for Plains Art Museum. Rosenquist was born in Grand Forks, N.D. in 1933, moved with his family later to Minneapolis, and eventually went to New York, where he became one of the major artists of the Pop art movement of the 1960s. So having a major new work for his home state is a big deal!

The mural is titled The North Dakota Mural and it is 13 feet high and 24 feet wide. It features imagery of North Dakota collaged together in Rosenquist’s pop art style, with images at different sizes and scales. The painting will be installed on the large wall in the Museum’s Ruth & Seymour Landfeld Atrium.

Jim had arranged to have the mural hung in an open gallery at the Contemporary Art Museum at the University of Southern Florida so that we could view it all put together. The painting is made up of twelve panels that fit together to form the larger piece.

Jim lives about an hour north of Tampa, and his studio is not big enough to display the entire mural. So this was a good move to have it put up in a gallery. We were grateful to the museum for helping Jim and us out with this offer of their space for a couple of days while they were between shows.

The mural is magnificent! We were thrilled to see it and confirm that the commission had been met to our great satisfaction. We had a celebratory dinner that night.

To underscore how unlikely the acquisition of this mural is, this wasn’t even the first mural Jim painted for the Museum. The first burned in a brush fire that consumed his home and studio on April 25th, 2009. Following its destruction, an anonymous donor came forward to assist in funding a second mural. The second is nearly identical to the first, but Jim has remarked that the second one is better. Whatever the case, it was a real thrill to see this portion of our Capital Campaign come to fruition.

At the Plains, we’re getting our building prepared to install the mural, which will be unveiled to the public this fall. Prior to hanging the piece, we need to replace the windows over the Atrium with UV-protected glass in order to keep the painting in good condition. Preparation will begin immediately after our Spring Gala. The mural will be hung in September and an unveiling is planned for early October.

We’re really excited to share this new, beautiful work of art by one of our native sons with the community.