Ed Ruscha And Photography

by Ed Ruscha

Since the beginning of Ed Ruscha's career in the late 1950s, photography has been both an inspiration and a source of discovery. This volume thoroughly traces Ruscha's engagement with photography and reveals how his photographic works shed new light on his career as a whole. In preparing this volume and the related exhibition, the artist has worked closely with Whitney Museum curator Sylvia Wolf to share his artistic process and reveal the importance of photography to his art in other mediums. Wolf remarks, "Ed Ruscha's books are among the most original achievements in the art of the 1960s and 1970s, and are the photographic works he is most known for. There have, however, been pictures tucked away in boxes in his studio and photographs that are unpublished or rarely seen, which shed light on Ruscha's career as a whole." This volume considers all facets of Ruscha's photographic production, selecting from the Whitney Museum's exceptional recent acquisition of a major body of the artist's original photographic works and unique early pieces.

Included are reproductions of original prints from Ruscha's photographic books Twenty-six Gasoline Stations, Various Small Fires and Milk, Some Los Angeles Apartments, Thirty-Four Parking Lots in Los Angeles, Royal Road Test, Babycakes with Weights, and Real Estate Opportunities , as well as several photographs Ruscha never published, in particular 16 images from Twentysix Gasoline Stations not included in the book. Unique vintage photographs from a seven-month tour of Europe in 1961 are featured; photographs from Austria, England, France, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Yugoslavia feature many motifs and stylistic elements that have marked Ruscha's work over the past 40 years, in particular his interest in typography and signage, and his strong graphic sensibility.

Genres: Photography, Art

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2004

About the author

Edward Ruscha is a towering figure of American Pop Art whose multidisciplinary practice redefined the visual language of the late twentieth century. Born in Omaha and raised in Oklahoma City, Ruscha moved to Los Angeles in 1956 to study at the Chouinard Art Institute, where he was mentored by Robert Irwin and Emerson Woelffer. Rising to prominence in the early 1960s alongside the influential Ferus Gallery group, he gained international acclaim for his "word paintings"—monosyllabic oils like OOF, BOSS, and HONK—which isolated typography against monochromatic backgrounds, reflecting his background in commercial art and a fascination with the "deadpan" irreverence of the Pop movement. His work is inextricably linked to the vernacular of Southern California, capturing the sprawling aesthetics of Los Angeles through iconic depictions of the Hollywood sign, stylized gas stations, and continuous photographic surveys such as Every Building on the Sunset Strip. A master of diverse media, Ruscha has famously experimented with unconventional materials, including gunpowder, blood, axle grease, and various food products like chocolate syrup and caviar, to create works that bridge the gap between commercial graphics and fine art. His influence extends significantly into the "New Topographics" photography movement and conceptual art, challenging traditional views of the urban landscape by dispassionately documenting America’s suburban structures. In 1962, his work was featured in the groundbreaking New Painting of Common Objects exhibition, widely considered one of the first Pop Art surveys in America. Throughout his storied career, he has been the subject of major retrospectives at the world’s leading museums, including the Centre Pompidou, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Museum of Modern Art. Ruscha has also contributed to public spaces through monumental commissions for the Getty Center and the Miami-Dade Public Library. In recognition of his enduring impact, he represented the United States at the Venice Biennale in both 1970 and 2005, and in 2013, he was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. His artistic reach even touched popular culture, with his typeface "Boy Scout Utility Modern" and his collaboration on cover art for Paul McCartney and The Beatles. Beyond his own production, Ruscha has served as a trustee for the Museum of Contemporary Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, underscoring his leadership within the arts community. His unique "cool gaze" remains a quintessential chronicler of the American West, blending the cinematic proportions of Hollywood with the mundane reality of the open road. Today, his works are held in premier permanent collections worldwide, cementing his legacy as a defining artist of the postwar era who transformed the way we read, see, and experience the modern environment.

Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

What was needed was a book focusing on Ed Ruscha's photographic works and this is the book. The photo image of Ruscha is very much part of the paintings and conceptual thinking of his work. I think his 'Sunset Strip" book is a modern masterpiece that needs to be known to a greater audience. In the early 60's he took photographs of both sides of the street, and it's a fantastic document as well as a moving statement of sorts about urban life and its after-effects.

[Michael Vagnetti · Rating 3 out of 5]

The photographs are not styled because they are tools that give you information about what things look like flat, "a vehicle," without excessive style, without nostalgia, so that you can change it with paint. So although almost none of these photographs is interesting enough to look at again, they had to be looked at enough times to...get tired of the world you could see through a camera. I think that the photographs were a stand-in for words until those started showing up in the paintings.

The writing style of the book is depressingly academic, once again, a slave to names with biographies and their objects. Ruscha is interviewed at the end and he is expressive of puzzlement and simplicity.

[A · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ed Ruscha is not often known for his photography. This is a beautiful catalog of his photograph, sometimes juxtaposed with his paintings, drawings and collages. This is a wonderful book.