Artist James Rosenquist was born on November 29, 1933, in North Dakota, USA. He studied painting and drawing at the University of Minnesota from 1952 and received a scholarship to attend the Art Students League of New York in 1955. During this time, Rosenquist worked part-time as a sign maker, a position he continued to support himself with after graduation. Initially, Rosenquist's work was influenced by Abstract Expressionism, but toward the end of the 1950s, he began incorporating the style of advertising signs into his work. He created collages of everyday objects such as food, household goods, and automobiles, and painted them on large canvases in the style of street advertisements. This style, based on images of mass consumer society, would sweep America as pop art in the 1960s, and Rosenquist became a celebrated figure in the movement. Among his most famous works is "F-111," released in 1965. In this work, Rosenquist depicted the then-state-of-the-art fighter jet, the F-111, as well as hair dryers, the mushroom cloud of a hydrogen bomb test, and spaghetti reminiscent of organs, creating a monumental 86-foot-long work. At the time, America was involved in the Vietnam War, and Rosenquist is said to have intended this work to convey an anti-war message. In 1988, in collaboration with Tyler Graphics, a leading American printmaking studio, he invented a new technique of spraying colored paper pulp onto giant pieces of handmade paper. His "Welcome to the Water Planet" and "House on Fire" series attracted considerable attention for their vibrant colors. His 1992 work, "Time Dust," remains one of the world's largest prints.