Ed Ruscha
-
-
Overview
Pop artist Ed Ruscha was born in Nebraska and moved to Los Angeles in 1956 to study at the Chouinard Art Institute with the intention of becoming a commercial artist. Quickly recognized in the 1960s as an important representative of the thriving Pop Art movement and a successor of the Beat Generation for his collages and text-based pieces, Ruscha exhibited his work at the Ferus Gallery, the Leo Castelli Gallery, and Gagosian Gallery. As a painter, drawer, and filmmaker, Ruscha has been heavily influenced by the city of Los Angeles and by his initial interest in graphic arts. As Ruscha incorporates text and urban as well as Western landscapes into his work, he comments on myths of American Romanticism, commercial culture, and urban life with humour and irony. He sometimes uses unusual media in his work, including fruit and vegetable juices, blood, gunpowder, and grass stains, which is seen in works such as his Stains series. In the 1980s, his style became more mystical, as he worked with rays of light, constellations, and other celestial themes. Ruscha is best known for his witty and enigmatic use of text in his paintings, which he continues to incorporate into his works today. He has held several retrospectives in New York; Washington, DC; London; Paris; and Munich and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2001.
-
Biography
1937 Born in Omaha, Nebraska
1948 Enrolled in his first painting class with portrait painter Richard Goetz
1956-1960 Moved to Los Angeles at age eighteen, studied at the Chouinard Art Institute
Early 1960s Worked in advertising as a layout artist and sign painter
1962 First prints were lithographs executed; published "Twentysix Gasoline Stations," his first artist book
1963-1978 Systematically photographed southern California's built environments, including vacant parking lots, swimming pools, and nightspots, which he made into wordless books
1970s Experimented with a range of techniques in drawings, prints, and paintings, including depictions of graphite pencils—broken, splintered, and melted
1974 Awarded the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture Medal in Graphics
2023-2024 "ED RUSCHA / NOW THEN" opened at MoMA in 2023 and traveled to LACMA in 2024—his first comprehensive retrospective in more than twenty years, including over 250 works
SELECCTED EXHIBTIONS
1963 First show, Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles
1964 Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles
1965 Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles
1968 Ferus and Blum Gallery, Los Angeles
1969 Ferus and Blum Gallery, Los Angeles (poster created)
2013 'In Focus: Ed Ruscha' J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
2018 Ed Ruscha: Course of Empire, National Gallery, London
2019
Some of the artists I have worked for, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London
Prints I Published
2023 ED RUSCHA / NOW THEN Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
-
Works
Exhibitions
-
Ed Ruscha: Made in California
10 March - 14 April 2022Bernard Jacobson Gallery exhibits iconic prints by the American artist Ed Ruscha. Bringing together several prints published by Bernard Jacobson in the 1970s and early 1980s, the show also includes... -
Prints I wish I had published
11 January - 9 February 2019In 1969 Bernard Jacobson opened his first London gallery – a fourth-floor walk-up on Mount Street, Mayfair, dealing in prints by international stars, including Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg, as... -
Prints I published
12 February - 9 March 2019In 1969 Bernard Jacobson began his career as an art dealer, selling and publishing prints by important contemporary artists from a small fourth-floor gallery in London’s Mayfair. For a gallery... -
Some of the artists I have worked for
10 September - 5 October 2019To end the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the gallery, we are delighted to introduce a selection of works by the artists that helped shaping its success.
Art Fairs
Publications
