Ed Ruscha
It took 12 years for Ed Ruscha to land his first art dealer on the opposite side of the country
Growing up in Oklahoma City, Ed Ruscha knew Los Angeles was a place he had to be from the time his parents took him there on a family trip at the age of 14. He was hooked immediately. His move to Los Angeles would come four years later in 1956 to attend art school. Driving from Oklahoma City with his friend. He’d room in a succession of cheap apartments and various boarding houses while doing odd jobs in the Hollywood area to stay afloat. Ruscha would also learn to typeset and make books from one of his odd jobs when he was in school. Originally starting in the Graphic Design program he switched to painting after discovering the work of little known at the time Jasper Johns. Specifically, Johns’ “Target With Four Faces”.
When he finally graduated in 1960 he took a full-time job as an art director at the Carson/Roberts advertising agency before quitting only after 6 months. He couldn’t stand not dedicating enough time to his art. Quitting allowed him to go on a family trip to Europe and then hang out in Paris on his own once his family left. He’d spend a month there wandering the streets and painting small pictures. His bold move came on his way back to Los Angeles from Europe. He’d stop off in New York and unannounced ask to meet with the infamous art dealer Leo Castelli at his gallery. Castelli accepted the meeting and Ruscha proceeded to show him the paintings he had made in Paris. Castelli was very polite and patient with the young Ruscha. He told him he’d pass but to keep in touch. Ruscha had the realization that he was meant to be an artist, in his words “I could see I was born for the job, born to watch paint dry.” (1)
He had no intention of relocating to New York. Even though it was an epicenter of art and design as it still is today. Los Angeles at the time didn’t really have a burgeoning art scene. No major museums, not a ton of galleries. But he would join a small group of artists that were part of the Ferus Gallery that not only put notable Los Angeles artists on the map but also sparked the Pop Art movement by hosting one of Andy Warhol’s first solo gallery shows (2).
Ruscha to support his painting would work as a sign painter and he’d also paint names on gift items during Christmas time. He’d work for one or two months prior to the holiday season and then he could support himself for the rest year up until the next holiday season. This gave him the time and space to work on his own paintings. His part-time job would influence his art. Instead of painting letters on gifts with people’s names, he’d paint letters on canvas with slogans appropriated from mass media. The experience he had typesetting also stayed with him. Instead of printing words on a page, he’d paint them on canvas. Ruscha also managed to stay in touch with Castelli, making occasional trips to his gallery in New York. He would do this for about 12 years until in 1973 Castelli agreed to represent Ruscha and became his New York art dealer (3).
The inspiration from his typesetting and bookbinding days would strike again when had the desire to do something with books. Paint them, make them. Inspired by interstates across America and their banality Ruscha started taking pictures. Not only did he make frequent trips to Oklahoma City on historic Route 66, but he’d also hitchhike across the country. According to Ruscha, it took 26 rides to get to West Palm Beach and 26 to get back. He started to take pictures of gas stations, one of the only consistent man-made landmarks across barren country roads. He would edit down his images to 26 for his photobook, “Twentysix Gasoline Stations”. Ruscha self-published the book making 400 copies and selling them at $3 a piece. He sent copies to the library of congress only for the library congress to send them back with a note stating they had no desire to add the book to their collection. In 1970, he’d go on to self-publish a second edition of 3000 copies. People were dumbfounded by the work but artists ate it up. This would influence him to produce more books in a similar vein. The books glorified the banality of street scenes in Los Angeles and interstates of America. Putting them in a book made them official. In a sense, they had the voyeuristic quality of being an analogue version of Google Street View. Over the next 9 years, 14 more books would follow some of which included, “Some Los Angeles Apartments” and “Every Building on the Sunset Strip”. A well preserved first edition of “Twentysix Gasoline Stations” can go for as much as $25,000.00 in today’s market.
Ed Ruscha would continue to operate on his instincts. The urge to satisfy himself with his art as he’d have to live with it. This includes creating beautiful paintings of banal urban scenes which he’s made for the Gagosian Gallery. Such as piled up mattresses, shredded truck tires and other debris on desolate landscapes. He’s also evolved his word paintings. He now paints borrowed slogans on top borrowed snow-capped mountains as part of his “mountain series” that make $1 million each on the primary market. His work can be found in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum, The San Francisco Museum of Art and the Hirshhorn Museum (4).
References
1. Tomkins, Calvin. “Ed Ruscha’s Los Angeles.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 10 July 2017, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/07/01/ed-ruschas-l-a.
2. Drohojowska-Philp, Hunter. Rebels In Paradise: the Los Angeles Art Scene and the 1960s. A John Macrae Book/Henry Holt and Company, 2012.
3. Channel, Louisiana. “Ed Ruscha Interview: Words Have No Size.” YouTube, YouTube, 16 Mar. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CDQ5iynxYE.
4. Tomkins, Calvin. “Ed Ruscha’s Los Angeles.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 10 July 2017, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/07/01/ed-ruschas-l-a.
Originally published at blog.viktorbezic.com.
