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James Rosenquist |
This painting is called Nomad. A nomad is someone who travels around from place to place and doesn't have a permanent home. Paintings usually have one part that stands out from all the others; this is called the "focal point." James Rosenquist's painting doesn't have a focal point. Our eyes just keep moving around, like a nomad.
How many things in the painting can you recognize? Almost everyone can identify the ballet dancers, picnic table, spaghetti, and grass. Most people recognize the microphone, but have a little trouble with the light bulb. Adults know that the Oxy refers to the laundry soap Oxydol, which comes in a green box with red, white, and yellow arcs. But very few people can figure out the large gray object in the upper right-hand corner. Can you guess what it is? In real life it's much smaller than a picnic table, and almost every grown-up has one when they're out of the house! Why do you think it's so big?
One of the reasons people have trouble identifying some of the objects in Nomad is that they were not painted to scale. One definition of scale is how large or small something is compared to something else. Scale is important in Mr. Rosenquist's work, and he plays games with it. For example, a light bulb is smaller than a ballet dancer in real life, so this painting tricks us. Can you find some other examples in the painting where Mr. Rosenquist plays games with scale?