(2 of 2)
ANDY WARHOL, 30, earns his living doing ads for women's magazines, but his "serious" work also involves literal paintings of everyday objects. He has done a large (72 in. by 54 in.) black and white painting of a typewriter, is currently occupied with a series of "portraits" of Campbell's Soup cans in living color. While a legion of contemporary sculptors smash everyday objects to create a fresh image, Warhol leaves them just the way they are. "I just paint things I always thought were beautiful, things you use every day and never think about. I'm working on soups, and I've been doing some paintings of money. I just do it because I like it."
JAMES ROSENQUIST, 28, began his career as a painter of billboards, and the experience of painting yard-long noses at a distance of two feet had a profound effect on him. "I'd start an ad," he says, "and in it, I'd see a lot of things I would never see in a studio." What Rosenquist saw was a familiar image brought so close and made so large that it lost its familiarity. In his paintings, he puts several images or image fragments onto the canvas: a big hand and a row of push buttons may symbolize automation; a row of typewriter keys, a man's blue-jeaned backside, a hot-dog segment and a huge Lifesaver, all swirling over a woman's face, may represent the woman's thoughts. At their best, the paintings are arresting. Though the magnified images seem crystal clear, Rosenquist places them in such haunting arrangements that the curse of literalness is removed.