Beschreibung:

ED RUSCHA (B. 1937)Gem, 1968
signed and dated 'E. Ruscha 1968' (lower left)
pastel and pencil on paper
11 1/4 x 28 3/4 in.
28.6 x 73.1 cm.
FootnotesProvenance
Alexandre Iolas Gallery, New York
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, Contemporary Art, 6 May 1986, lot 199
Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles
Private Collection, Los Angeles (acquired directly from the above)
Acquired by descent from the above by the present owner
Literature
Lisa Turvey, ed., Edward Ruscha: Catalogue Raisonné of the Works on Paper, Volume One: 1956-1976, Gagosian Gallery: New York, 2014, p. 234, n. D1968.32, illustrated
Ed Ruscha is one of the most resonant and iconic artists of our time whose distinctive style and mastery of skill are undeniable. The present lot is an exceptional work from one of the most sought-after periods of the artist's career. On offer for the first time at auction in nearly forty years, GEM is a recently rediscovered work from a private Los Angeles collection in which it has been lovingly cared for since its acquisition. GEM is a quintessential example of the artist's transformation of word into image. By selecting, elevating, and reframing the words and phrases that articulate our everyday life, Ruscha expands our very imaginations by way of seemingly simple compositions.
By separating the word or phrase from the context that produces a particular significance, Ruscha's drawings articulate the interplay between the manifestation of words in culture and the illusionary and abstract nature of their definitions. Ruscha activates multiple senses of the viewer, who automatically hears the word as they see the word, extending the work beyond the visual into a realm of synesthesia.
As René Magritte's conceptual masterpiece Ceci n'est pas une pipe eloquently articulates, so GEM subtly conveys a similar thesis. The nexus between the intangible and tangible, particularly as it pertains to language (visual and written), serves to point out the complexity of navigating the signs and symbols of broader cultural landscapes. Ruscha's ability to capture this illusionary middle ground is deeply profound and its impact on generations of artists and creators alike is palpable.
By the 1970s, Ruscha heavily integrated the use of pastel into hundreds of his compositions. GEM, executed in 1968, marks the beginning of Ruscha's interest in this medium and a significant evolution in his career-long use of dry pigment. Ruscha's sustained interest in creating compositions through positive and negative relationships is further cemented in the works he made in 1968, a distinct change from much of what he was making earlier in the decade. In the words of curator and art historian, Margit Rowell, "the shading of the letters creates the impression of a word sculpted by light [producing] an ambiguity and aesthetic illusion... The lettering is three dimensional, the modulated grounds are dramatic, the oblique angles are precise, and the framing is more sophisticated."1 Ruscha's use of unusual materials, married with his markedly original applications of those mediums, emphasizes his commitment to dismembering artistic hierarchies and speaks to his broader conceptual interrogations into value and the exchange of information.
Born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1937, Ed Ruscha moved to Los Angeles at age 18 to study art at the Chouinard Institute (now the California Institute of Arts). While in school, under the mentorship of Emerson Woelffer and Robert Irwin Ruscha worked as a sign painter and typesetter. The influence of advertising and graphic design became fundamental in Ruscha's visual vocabulary and conceptual explorations and has permeated his work ever since. This eye toward commercial advertising and a specific interest in American visual culture aligned Ruscha's early practice with the emerging principles of Pop Art. In 1962, Ruscha was included in the seminal exhibition New Painting of Common Objects at the Pasadena Art Museum alongside Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein However, as Ruscha's practice developed, it became clear that he defied categorization and embodied a larger spirit that spoke to a unique interrogation into the American psyche.
Ed Ruscha is the subject of a major retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York which opens in September 2023. Ruscha has had nearly thirty solo exhibitions, including at the Getty Museum, Los Angeles; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the De Young Museum, San Francisco. Ruscha represented the United States twice at the Venice Biennale, first in 1970 and again in 2004. He is included in the permanent collections of many major institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Gallery, London; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Art Institute of Chicago; Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.
1 Margit Rowell, Cotton Puffs, Q-Tips, Smoke and Mirrors, Whitney Museum of American Art, 2004, pp. 16, 17.