I never met Ed Ruscha in person, but I was aware of him since moving to Los Angeles in the early 1970s, because I became friends with his younger brother, Paul Ruscha, also an artist. You may read here my article about Paul and our common friend, Eve Babitz.
Our Flag, 2017
Recently I explored his retrospective at LACMA, Ed Ruscha/ Now Then, which had previously been shown at MOMA, and was impressed by Our Flag, a tattered American flag from 2017. The artist, who does not like to explain the meaning of his artworks, did not say that it was a comment on Donald Trump being elected president in 2016, however I read in the Hollywood Reporter that in April he was preparing posters for the 2024 election. One reads “Grab Pussy, Mandatory Pregnancy, Vote Trump.”
Actual Size, 1962
Ruscha moved from Oklahoma to Los Angeles in 1956 at age 18, where he attended Chouinard Art Institute (now CalArts), graduating in 1960. One of his early paintings, titled Actual Size, was acquired by LACMA in 1963.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Fire, 1965-68
Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Fire, 1965-1968, depicts the newly constructed buildings designed by William Pereira, which have since been demolished to make room for a sprawling complex designed by Peter Zumthor, still under construction.
Standard Station, 1963
Some of the paintings from the 1960s share a diagonal composition, that Ruscha defined “megaphone effect.”
Standard Station, 1964
Standard Station, Amarillo, Texas, 1963, and another version from 1964 with a blue rather than black sky, titled Standard Station, Ten-Cent Western Being Torn in Half.
20th Century Fox, 1962
20th Century Fox, 1962, subtitled Large Trademark with Eight Spotlights.
Norm’s, La Cienega, on Fire, 1964
Norm’s La Cienega on Fire, 1964.
The Back of Hollywood, 1977
I noticed the red skies and the extreme horizontal format of paintings like The Back of Hollywood, 1977, repeated in Fat Boy, titled The Old Tech-Chem Building, 2003, which is supposed to reference the code names of the two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, Fat Man and Little Boy.
The Old Tech-Chem Building, 2003
Many artworks are words or phrases overlaid on paintings that sometimes are by another artist, Nancy Reese in the case of The Music from the Balconies, 1984, excerpted from the 1975 novel High-Rise by J.G. Ballard.
The Music from the Balconies, 1984
The Study of Friction and Wear on Mating Surfaces, 1983. Not sure where this phrase comes from, but the red sunset sky background reappears. The same phrase was later marketed as a beach towel with a different blue and purple background.
Friction and Wear, 1983
Blue and green are the colors of the mountains and sky in this piece, Pay Nothing Until April, 2003.
Pay Nothing until April, 2003
The American flag is repeated in this work from 2021, Odd Ad.
Odd Ad, 2021
The reason why I was at LACMA on July 16 was to cover the closing of the Judy Baca exhibit, read my article here.
I also attended the screening of Ed Ruscha’s short documentary Elysian Park, shown at the Academy Museum. It inspired me to explore this area of Los Angeles, so I started with an LA Conservancy tour of Frogtown.
I find it upsetting that a 1964 painting by Ed Ruscha, Hurting the Word Radio #2, sold to Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos for $52 million in 2020, while Judy Baca is worried that the 1970s section of the Great Wall of Los Angeles won’t be completed by 2027, in preparation for the 2028 Olympics, for lack of funds. This is a public artwork that has lots of meanings for many diverse communities.
For another take on the Ed Ruscha retrospective, read this article in Cultural Daily.
Artwork (c) Ed Ruscha. Photos by Elisa Leonelli