James Rosenquist - Caught One Lost One for the Fast Student or Star Catcher
American, b. 1933
Caught One Lost One for the Fast Student or Star Catcher, 1989
Lithograph, colored, pressed paper pulp, and collage, 54.5 x 38 inches
Edition 13/92
Tyler Graphics Ltd.
01.007

Gift of Judy and J.D. Williamson II (BBA '67, MBA '68)

James Rosenquist numbers among the celebrated Pop artists, including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Claes oldenburg, who emerged during the 1960s. Turning to the signs, symbols and images of popular culture, these artists both celebrated and critiqued a modern consumer and technological society.

Rosenquist's Caught One Lost One for the Fast Student or Star Catcher is from a highly innovative project of ten paperworks entitled Welcome to the Water Planet and House of Fire. Wishing to achieve large areas of delicate color gradations, Rosenquist made unorthodox use of a "pattern pistol," a spray gun used to apply stucco textures to walls. When he filled the spray gun with colored paper pulp, he was able to suggest print and watercolor washes. These washes of color and design provided a contrast for the collaged, hard-edged lithographic sections. The title of the series evokes science fiction tales, yet the water planet in question is Earth, not some faraway place. In Caught One Lost One for the Fast Student or Star Catcher, Rosenquist typically blends nature and the artifacts from a technological society. Specifically, he wished to suggest an idea falling from the sky.