“Don [Saff] was a very wonderful person. The studio was wide open for ideas or innovations – hence the plastic hourglass called Earth and Moon.”
—James RosenquistEarth and Moon, part of the Cold Light Suite created with Graphicstudio master printer Donald Saff, remains distinctive amongst the series. Atop the lithograph, with its gradated colors reminiscent of a sunset, sits a vacuum-formed plastic hourglass containing sand-like beads – which flow through the hourglass when the work is rotated. This interactive three-dimensional element is one of only two in the series of nine prints, along with Mastaba. The result is a lithograph that goes beyond the traditional origins of printmaking, instilling new dimensionality in the medium.
This unique addition reflects Rosenquist’s desire to push boundaries and Saff’s eagerness to help artists execute their experimental visions during their time working with Graphicstudio. The hourglass of Earth and Moon marks Rosenquist’s first foray into adding a three-dimensional element to a lithograph, physically animating the surface of the print with new depth and movement. This evocation of time continually alters the image, as the sunset gradient is simultaneously revealed and obscured by the beads, with their quiet and mesmerizing sound, as they move from one chamber to the next.
Elements of Earth and Moon manifest across other prints of Rosenquist’s oeuvre: the artist later revisited the addition of three-dimensional forms in the rotating mirrors at the center of The Memory Continues but the Clock Disappears (lot 248) and Time Lines (lot 249). The combined imagery of the planetary coin and white moon stamped with a thumbprint additionally reappear in Rosenquist’s monumental tapestries Banner #1 and Banner #2, transporting the cosmic imagery to the medium of textiles.
