Series

Art Week: Ed Ruscha

Introduced by Alexandra Schwartz

Chosen to represent the United States at the 51st Venice Biennale, Ed Ruscha’s exhibit of ten paintings, entitled Course of Empire, was installed ten days later at the Whitney Museum. Thirteen days after that, we at n+1 bring you the first of five essays and an interview—everything we know about Ed Ruscha.

Roger White

Same Old, Same Old

Art and Architecture
13 December 2005

He really had been a biker, before giving up everything about that lifestyle but the wardrobe. The room where I worked housed the coffee machine, and William would take refuge there from the noise, dust, and tedious solitude of the garage. By the time I left the job I’d heard most of his favorite stories. More…

Jesse Dillon

Asymmetry from the Hot Symmetrical Plasma

Art and Architecture
10 December 2005

In 1976 Ed Ruscha made the pastel drawing “Three Seconals, Three Darvons.” It’s a phenomenological sci-fi drug drawing of a phase transition. Out of a warm dust advance six clinically cold meds. Or else they drift into the dull smog. They simultaneously are and are not the same thing. More…

Dushko Petrovich

Gunpowder Empire

Art and Architecture
7 December 2005

Like any good hitter, Ruscha swings with precision. He has a smooth stroke, which often gets called “cool,” and is often misunderstood as dependable. But Ruscha swings at a lot—palindromes, gas stations, entire empires—and so he occasionally strikes out. The abstract nouns Truth and Hope, set on faded teal and ice blue, are too bland to trouble me visually, or philosophically. More…

Jasper Sharp

Our Man in Venice

Art and Architecture
3 December 2005

The financial and bureaucratic issues that complicated the selection of an artist to represent the United States at the 51st Venice Biennale are well known within the art world. Their choice of Ed Ruscha, among the most established and respected artists working today, was widely applauded. More…

Alexandra Schwartz

Catching Up with Ed Ruscha

Art and Architecture
1 December 2005

It’s always heartening to see an underappreciated artist get his due, but in Ruscha’s case, this development is particularly sweet. For many years, his decision to live and work in Los Angeles—until recently isolated from and neglected by the New York-centered art world—has worked against him. More…