Lithograph on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/james-rosenquist-1866" aria-label="More by James Rosenquist" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">James Rosenquist</a>
Off Continental Divide
Purchased 1980
abstraction
architecture
book - non-specific
car part
cultural identity
emotions, concepts and ideas
exploration
features
formal qualities
fragmentation
from recognisable sources
lifestyle and culture
man-made
nail
objects
reading, writing, printed matter
society
stair / step
tools and machinery
transport: land
paper print lithograph
Off the Continental Divide
image: 1073 × 2000 mm
Purchased 1980
<p><b>P07379</b> OFF THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE 1974–4
<br/>
<br/>Inscribed ‘James Rosenquist 1973–4’ bottom right and ‘23/43’ and ‘Off the Continental Divide’
<br/>Lithograph, printed and published by Universal Limited Art Editions, New York, 42 5/8×78 3/4 (107.3×200)
<br/>Purchased from Petersburg Press (Grant-in-Aid) 1980
<br/>Lit: James Rosenquist Graphics Retrospective (exh. catalogue), John and Mabel Ringling Museum, Sarasota, Florida, no.61
<br/>
<br/>Between starting and finishing this <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>print</span></a>, Rosenquist made a large four-panel <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> of the same subject, ‘Slipping off the Continental Divide’. A study for the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> is in the Art Institute of Chicago. The imagery is divided between East and West halves: a car window frame, stairs, a book and nails in fives (as in primitive counting: four strokes and a fifth across them). The artist was born in North Dakota, near the Continental Divide along the Rocky Mountains; he has said ‘the whole print is about myself... I live in the middle of the country... and I can either go West or East’ (interview in Newsday 19 May 1974, quoted in The Print Collector's Newsletter, V no.3, July–August 1974, p.66).
<br/>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><i>The Tate Gallery 1980-82: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions</i>, London 1984
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-11T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
abstraction architecture book - non-specific car part cultural identity emotions, concepts and ideas exploration features formal qualities fragmentation from recognisable sources lifestyle and culture man-made nail objects reading, writing, printed matter society stair / step tools and machinery transport: land