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West Coast Pop Art

THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS NOW: Edward Ruscha papers and art collection opens

January 19, 2016 - Anne Kofmehl

Ed Ruscha (American, b. 1937), Ed Ruscha making a sandwich to be photographed for his book On the Road: An Artist Book of the Classic Novel by Jack Kerouac, ca. 2008 or 2009. Color transparency, 4 x 5.6 cm. © Ed Ruscha. For Ruscha’s most recent book project, published in 2009, he created an illustrated version of Jack Kerouac’s seminal beat novel On the Road. The complete text of the novel is reproduced alongside photographs Ruscha made or selected from other sources. Several boxes of material document the process from conception to publication, and include contact sheets, negatives, and transparencies for all the images from the book that Ruscha made himself (including this sandwich), as well as a few that didn’t make the cut.

Visitors to the Ransom Center may now experience the creative work and process of artist Edward Ruscha first hand. The materials in the Edward Ruscha papers and art collection, which opens today, cover a selection of works from the 1960s to the present, and include research material, notebooks, sketches, photographic material, publicity and exhibition material, and final editions for Ruscha’s artist’s books, prints, films, and commissioned works.

[Read more…] about THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS NOW: Edward Ruscha papers and art collection opens

Filed Under: Art, Photography Tagged With: Ed Ruscha, pop art, Twenty-Six Gasoline Stations, West Coast Pop Art

Oof. Peek inside the Ed Ruscha archive

November 13, 2013 - Peter Mears

Contact sheet of images for Ed Ruscha's artist book edition of "On the Road."

Four large bins containing the archival material of artist Ed Ruscha arrived at the Ransom Center recently. Packed and carefully layered within were boxes, tubes, and portfolios containing Ruscha’s notable creations on paper. The collection includes his limited edition artist’s books and deluxe suites of prints, photographic publications, colorful exhibition posters, prints of his 16 mm movies, and a rich assortment of papers and journals documenting the creation of his publications and art commissions and referencing his various literary influences. Together, this material represents the achievements of a remarkable artistic career that spans more than half a century.

Born in 1937, Ed Ruscha is considered today to be one of the most important artists of his generation. Words and wry phrases have always played a central role in his artwork, beginning with the West Coast Pop Art phenomena of the 1960s where his roots run deep. For Ruscha, whose background includes commercial art and typesetting, words are visually malleable and can carry multiple meanings. “I like the idea of a word becoming a picture, almost leaving its body, then coming back and becoming a word again,” Ruscha once said.

Arts writer, Calvin Tomkins, summed it up best: “His (Ruscha’s) early paintings are not pictures of words but words treated as visual constructs.”

Single word paintings with odd titles such as Oof (1963) and Boss (1964) were early precursors to more complex works such as the series of rhyming prints titled News, Mews, Pews, Brews, Stews & Dues (1970), which are included in the archive.

Ruscha’s art would evolve and expand intellectually—Marcel Duchamp and Jasper Johns were early influences—to become beautifully crafted and complex conceptual works of art, which have been described over the years as being comedic, deadpan, and elegantly laconic.

West Coast car culture and commutes on Route 66 between Los Angeles and Oklahoma where Ruscha grew up all helped inspire many of his photography-based artist’s books such as Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1962), Royal Road Test (1980), and Parking Lots (1999). All are represented in the archive.

Most recently published is On the Road (2010), Ruscha’s limited edition artist book of the classic novel by Jack Kerouac (1922–1969). The archive includes full-size mockups of the book, annotated copies of the novel, sketches, photographs, correspondence, and business papers. These materials resonate perfectly with the Ransom Center’s own collection of materials related to Beat Generation authors, which includes the journal that Kerouac kept while preparing to write On the Road.

Also included in the archive is Sayings (1995), a folio of ten color lithographs bound in linen that are based on Mark Twain’s novel Pudd’nhead Wilson: A Tale (1894). Ruscha selected phrases written by Twain in a black dialect spoken during the era of slavery. He superimposed the phrases (hand-written in what Ruscha calls his “Boy Scout Utility san serif”) over colorful wood grain patterns, creating a tension that resonates with larger social and racial issues in America today.

Ruscha’s creative distillation of popular American culture over the last half century with its layers of typographical code makes him an exciting artist to explore, and, for the Ransom Center, one of the more compelling if not quintessential to acquire.

Please click on thumbnails to view larger images.

Art concept related to Ed Ruscha's artist book edition of Jack Kerouac's novel "On the Road." The edition was published in 2010.
Art concept related to Ed Ruscha’s artist book edition of Jack Kerouac’s novel “On the Road.” The edition was published in 2010.
Contact sheet of images for Ed Ruscha's artist book edition of "On the Road."
Contact sheet of images for Ed Ruscha’s artist book edition of “On the Road.”
Promotional poster for Ed Ruscha's artist book edition of "On the Road."
Promotional poster for Ed Ruscha’s artist book edition of “On the Road.”
Page from Ed Ruscha's artist book "Sayings from Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson." Each image consists of a wood grain printed in color, a field of bright color, and the dialog hand-written in what the artist calls his "Boy Scout utility sans serif."
Page from Ed Ruscha’s artist book “Sayings from Mark Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson.” Each image consists of a wood grain printed in color, a field of bright color, and the dialog hand-written in what the artist calls his “Boy Scout utility sans serif.”
Page from Ed Ruscha's artist book "Sayings from Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson." Each image consists of a wood grain printed in color, a field of bright color, and the dialog hand-written in what the artist calls his "Boy Scout utility sans serif."
Page from Ed Ruscha’s artist book “Sayings from Mark Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson.” Each image consists of a wood grain printed in color, a field of bright color, and the dialog hand-written in what the artist calls his “Boy Scout utility sans serif.”

Filed Under: Acquisitions, Art, Photography Tagged With: acquisition, Art, artist’s book, Beat Generation, Ed Ruscha, Jack Kerouac, On the Road, Parking Lots, Pudd’nhead Wilson: A Tale, Royal Road Test, Sayings, Twentysix Gasoline Stations, West Coast Pop Art

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