The Friction Disappears

James Rosenquist, The Friction Disappears, 1965, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America, 1984.124.254
Copied James Rosenquist, The Friction Disappears, 1965, oil on canvas, 48 1⁄8 x 44 1⁄4 in. (122.2 x 112.4 cm.) irregular, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America, 1984.124.254

Artwork Details

Title
The Friction Disappears
Artist
Date
1965
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
48 1⁄8 x 44 1⁄4 in. (122.2 x 112.4 cm.) irregular
Credit Line
Gift of Container Corporation of America
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Architecture — vehicle — automobile
  • Object — other — sign
  • Object — foodstuff — spaghetti
Object Number
1984.124.254
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1984.124.254

Artwork Description

Rosenquist got his art training on the job, painting billboards in Minnesota and New York City, where he had to make food "delicious" and cigarettes "smokable." The Friction Disappears represents the effortless flow of pictures and information in our culture, where unrelated or contradictory ideas overlap one another. Rosenquist painted the car in the same hot hue as the canned spaghetti simply because he liked the color. The tiny electrons orbiting the globe on the car door are like the paths of ideas and images crisscrossing in the modern world. Rosenquist compares the uncanny combinations that result to "two soap bubbles colliding and coming together instead of destroying each other."

Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006