When Alain Jacquet, then 25, and James Rosenquist, 21, met in Paris in 1964, the Pop-art scene was taking off in America. Rosenquist, who hailed from Grand Forks, North Dakota, and was at the heart of the movement in New York, had come to the French capital for an exhibition at Ileana Sonnabend’s gallery. Jacquet lived a few blocks away. Neither artist was famous yet. Jacquet was just starting with silkscreens; Rosenquist was putting up commercial billboards.
A few months later, Jacquet relocated to Manhattan. Though he and Rosenquist were friendly, the two men moved in different circles—Jacquet with figures such as Jasper Johns and Roy Lichtenstein, while Rosenquist shared rowdy nights with Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg. The friendship deepened in the 1980s, when Rosenquist moved into an airy studio on Chambers Street and Jacquet set up shop a few blocks north, on West Broadway.
