1. Rosenquist’s early training as a billboard painter continued to influence his later work as a professional artist. In what ways is this painting like a billboard? How is it different? What images in this painting do you associate with advertising? Why?
   
   
2. This work was painted in 1962. Describe contemporary advertisements for Pepsi Cola. What images would you choose to surround a current Pepsi Cola logo?
   
   
3. According to Rosenquist, “Sometimes a title sets off an idea. Sometimes an idea will bring about a title.” Consult a dictionary to find the definition for the title of this work, Vestigial Appendage. Suggest possible connections between the title of this work and what you see in the painting. How might the title that Rosenquist has given to this work relate to its meaning?
   
   

1. Describe your reaction to this work. Write a description of this painting for someone who has never seen it. Try to capture the full experience of the painting in words.
   
   
2. This painting was completed 35 years after Vestigial Appendage. Rosenquist is still using commercial imagery in his work. Describe how his painting style and use of commercial products as subject matter has changed over the years.

Everyone at some time has been persuaded to buy a product because of a commercial or ad. Write about a time when a product disappointed you because it turned out to be different from how it was advertised.

Burns, Kate. The American Teenager: Examining Pop Culture. Greenhaven Press, 2003.

Gourley, Catherine. Media Wizards: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Media Manipulations. Twenty-First Century Books, 1999.

Petley, Julian. The Media: Impact on our Lives. New York: Raintree Steck-Vaughn Publishers, 2001.

Ravitch, Diane and Joseph P. Viteritti. Kid Stuff: Marketing Sex and Violence to America’s Children. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.

WEB SITES

http://www.ithaca.edu/looksharp
A project of Ithaca College providing support, education, and training to help teachers prepare students to survive in a media-saturated world.

http://www.amlainfo.org/
National Association for Media Literacy Education

http://www.medialit.org
The Center for Media Literacy is a nonprofit organization providing resources for media education.

ABSTRACT   Not related to material objects.

ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM   A movement in American painting that developed in New York during the 1940s and stressed the spontaneous expression of emotion without reference to any representation of physical reality.

BEATS   Beginning in the 1950s, artists, poets, and musicians who defied social norms by adopting a bohemian lifestyle and rejecting traditional American values and material possessions.

COLLAGE   Two-dimensional works made of pasted paper pieces, cloth, or other materials.

CUBIST   Referring to a style of art originated by George Braque and Pablo Picasso. The Cubists fragmented objects and pictorial space into semitransparent, overlapping faceted planes.

GRID   A network of evenly spaced horizontal and vertical lines, as found on graph paper.

GRISAILLE   A style of painting that uses only gray tints to render images.

ICONOGRAPHY   Symbols and images that have a particular meaning, either learned or universal. The visual imagery used to convey meaning in a work of art.

MEDIA MESSAGES   Communication that reaches us through information and entertainment technologies that may use a combination of words, images, and sounds to capture our attention.

METAPHOR   A figure of speech or visual presentation in which a word, phrase, or image is used in place of another to suggest a likeness between them, while in the process formulating a new concept for the imagination.

POP ART   An art movement with its roots in the 1950s that explored the image world of popular culture, from which its name derives. Basing their techniques, style, and imagery on certain aspects of mass reproduction, the media, and consumer society, these artists took inspiration from advertising, pulp magazines, billboards, movies, television, comic strips, and shop windows. These images, presented with (and sometimes transformed by) humor, wit, and irony, can be seen as both a celebration and a critique of popular culture.

POPULAR CULTURE   The common set of arts, entertainment, customs, beliefs, and values shared by large segments of society.

SCALING-UP   A technique traditionally used in commercial art to enlarge an image by using a proportional grid.

SURREALISM   A 20th-century art movement in art and literature that sought to express what is in the subconscious mind by depicting objects and events as seen in dreams.