Elected President

Mediums: oil, fiberboard.
Location: The Center Georges Pompidou, Paris (France).

This is an early and elaborate work that brought fame to James Rosenquist. The artist always believed in the enormous power of advertising, so the image of John F. Kennedy, the first candidate, who was among the first to start advertising himself through the media and achieved unprecedented success, attracted the attention of the artist. He took the image of the president from a propaganda poster and placed it next to half a yellow Chevrolet and an advertising image of a piece of cake. Kennedy’s placement of equal importance with other items subtly hints that the president, like these products, is an advertising product, which means that he is sold and bought.