104 April 2012 ARTnews

reviews: new york

James RosenquistMuseum of Modern ArtThrough July 30Wrapping James Rosenquist’s mesmeriz-ing F-111 (1964–65) around the inside ofa specially constructed gallery, MoMAre-created the pioneering Pop artist’sfirst solo exhibition at Leo Castelli’s origi-nal uptown gallery space. The 86-foot-long work was painted on

23 panels, installed close together liketiles. Made to cover the gallery’s fourwalls, the work unfolds like an oversizeJapanese narrative screen, telling a storyof beauty, consumption, and violence.The title refers to an experimental war-plane being built at the time the paintingwas made, “an already obsolete fighterplane,” as Rosenquist explained in hisautobiography, “a monstrous vacuumcleaner for taxes.” The painting begins with tacky floral

patterns rolled over aluminum and asection of a red airplane. Next, part ofan enormous Firestone tire looms overan angel-food cake decorated with flagsidentifying the nutrients it contains.Ambiguous neon areas of orange, red,and turquoise lead to three giant light-bulbs. A fork arises from some noodles,and a red-lipped blond child sits under areflective silver hood dryer that resem-bles a pilot’s helmet. Uniting images ofmodern hedonistic pleasure with sym-bols of technology and conflict, F-111was created at the dawn of widespreadprotest against the escalating VietnamWar. To Rosenquist, the painting repre-sented a fighter bomber “flying through

the flak of consumer society.” In spite ofthe seduction of its lusciously toxicDay-Glo colors and creamy paint, thepiece is really an indictment of the mid-dle class’s acceptance of the war indus-try that fueled their prosperity.

—Elisabeth Kley

‘Rembrandt’sWorld’Morgan Library & MuseumThrough April 29This spectacular show, subtitled “DutchDrawings from the Clement C. MooreCollection,” roundly contradictsits own title: the world of Dutchdrawing is not exclusively Rem-brandt’s. It belongs to the moreworkaday geniuses here, includ-ing Jacob de Gheyn II, AnthonieWaterloo, Abraham Bloemaert,Daniel Bailly, Cornelis Visscher,Hans and Ferdinand Bol, andHerman Saftleven. Rembrandtwas a genius on a cosmic scale;these men stood in the ambigu-ous space where the artist wasstill linked to the artisan. Theygave the public just what itwanted—Dutch perspectives onDutch life, celebrations of Hol-land as a landscape and habitat ofa people eager to engage withtheir world, be it in commerce orplay. “God made the world, butthe Dutch made Holland,” as anold saying goes. Take Jacob de Gheyn II, who

produced engravings, paintings, etchings,and 1,500 drawings. He is representedhere by a striking river scene and one ofthe original drawings for the militarymanual The Exercise of Armes, publishedsimultaneously in Dutch and English. Thebook consists of 117 depictions of sol-diers handling various weapons, the im-ages that would inspire Watteau at thelatter end of the 17th century. DeGheyn’s meticulous attention to detailtransforms the abstract man-at-arms ofthe manual into a real person. The translation of drawings into prints

created an art economy that was notgoverned by aristocrats or wealthy pa-trons. It is probably the case that Bloe-maert’s or Waterloo’s etchings are morefamiliar to us today than are their draw-ings or paintings. This combination ofunique and multiple works of art is evenmore striking in the case of HendrikGoltzius, the quintessential Mannerist.The Moore Collection, reversing our ex-pectations, presents him as a naturalisticartist, with a circa 1600 portrait of a boy,a tiny masterpiece. Another Mannerist,Bloemaert, represented here by severalimages, also moves into a more naturalis-tic mode with his Danaë Receiving theGolden Rain (ca. 1610). The beauty ofthis nude explains why Zeus wouldmetamorphose into a shower of gold: herloveliness is that of a real woman, notthe twisted, elongated figures of Man-nerist hysteria.

UP NOW

UP NOW

James Rosenquist, F-111, 1964-65, oil on canvas with aluminum, 23 sections, 10' x 86', installation view.Museum of Modern Art.

GIFT OF MR. A

ND MRS. A

LEX L. HILLM

AN AND LILLIE P. B

LISS

BEQUEST (BOTH

BY EXC

HANGE)/©

2012 JAMES

ROSENQUIST/LICENSED BY VAGA, N

EW YORK/PHOTO

JONATHAN

MUZIKAR

Hendrik Goltzius, Portrait of a Smiling Young Boy, ca. 1600, pen and brown ink, 37⁄8" x 3". Morgan Library & Museum.

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