Ed Ruscha
Artist
Ed Ruscha holding his book Every Building on the Sunset Strip, 1967. © Ed Ruscha. Image courtesy of Jerry McMillan and Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica. © Jerry McMillan
Ed Ruscha was born in 1937 in Omaha, Nebraska, and grew up in Oklahoma, where he met his lifelong friends Mason Williams, Joe Goode, and Jerry McMillan. At the age of 18, in 1956, Ruscha drove to Los Angeles to attend the Chouinard Art Institute, where he studied with faculty members, including Robert Irwin and Emerson Woelffer. Informed by Pop Art and the distinctive billboard culture of Los Angeles, Ruscha was a pivotal presence in the West Coast art scene, and also served as a major representative of photo-based conceptualism. In 1962, Walter Hopps included Ruscha’s work in the influential New Painting of Common Objects exhibition. That same year, he began self-publishing photo books. Many of these were based on the Los Angeles cityscape, such as apartment buildings and parking lots, and captured the serial imagery of the city through a dry documentary sensibility.
Exhibition audio: Curator John Tain discusses Ruscha’s work.
Works of Art
-
The Los Angeles County Museum on Fire, 1965–68, Ed Ruscha. Oil on canvas. 53 1/2 x 133 1/2 in. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1972. © Ed Ruscha. Photography by Lee Stalsworth
-
Standard Station, Amarillo, Texas, 1963, Ed Ruscha. Oil on canvas. 64 1/2 x 121 3/4 in. Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; gift of James Meeker, Class of 1958, in memory of Lee English, Class of 1958, scholar, poet, athlete and friend to all. © Ed Ruscha
-
Some Los Angeles Apartments, 1965, Ed Ruscha. Self-published book, offset lithograph, 1965 (seconding printing 1970). 7 1/16 x 5 9/16 x 1/4 in. The Getty Research Institute, 86-B19485.c2. © Ed Ruscha
-
Real Estate Opportunities, 1970, Ed Ruscha. Self-published book, offset lithograph. 7 1/16 x 5 5/8 x 3/16 in. Open to pages depicting 12th & Sentous (southeast corner), and 1140 E. Pico. The Getty Research Institute, 86-B19480. © Ed Ruscha
-
Every Building on the Sunset Strip, 1966, Ed Ruscha. Self-published book, offset lithograph, 1966 (second printing 1971). 7 1/8 x 5 3/4 x 3/8 in. Open unfolded: 7 1/8 x 297 in. The Getty Research Institute, 86-B19486.c1. © Ed Ruscha
Explore the Archive
-
Video: Discover how L.A. artists of the 1960s and 1970s appropriated commercial culture
-
Video: Ed Ruscha speaks about his work, April 2011
-
Ed Ruscha's studio at 1024 3/4 N. Western Avenue in Hollywood, California, 1970. Photo by Larry Bell. Image courtesy of Billy Al Bengston
-
Orb, a Chouinard Art Institute student journal, vol. 1, no. 2, 1959. © Ed Ruscha. The Getty Research Institute, 2925-311, v1.no2
-
Heavy Industry Publications advertising books by Ed Ruscha, ca. 1968. Offset lithograph. © Ed Ruscha. The Getty Research Institute, Gift of Michael Asher, 2009.M.30.1
-
An exhibition at Billy Al Bengston’s Artist Studio, with works by Ed Ruscha, Peter Alexander, and John McCracken, 1970. Image courtesy of Billy Al Bengston
-
Poster for the exhibition New Painting of Common Objects at the Pasadena Art Museum, 1962. Wood-type letterpress on paper. 42 3/8 x 28 in. Image courtesy of the Ed Ruscha Studio
-
Ed Ruscha in his studio at 1024 3/4 N. Western Avenue in Hollywood, California, 1970. Image courtesy of Billy Al Bengston. Photo © Larry Bell
-
Several Los Angeles artists at Culture Day at LACMA (L.A. County Museum of Art), 1968. Photo by and © Julian Wasser.
-
Ed Ruscha and Joe Goode on horseback. Exhibition catalogue cover for the Fine Arts Patrons of Newport Harbor at the Balboa Pavillion Gallery, 1968. Image courtesy of Jerry McMillan and Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica. © Jerry McMillan
