
Edward RuschaVereinigte Staaten, 1937Darf man es sehen?
Minneapolis, Vereinigte Staaten
Es gehört zur Sammlung, ist derzeit aber nicht ausgestellt.
Ed Ruscha has always been fascinated with language and with transforming text and cultural icons into high art. In 1967, he began a series of “paper ribbon” drawings featuring isolated words as objects set in three-dimensional space. He drew in a trompe l’oeil manner, using various media, cotton swabs, and the palm of his hand to establish subtle tonal gradations and illusionistic effects. Ruscha maintains that he chose words for their appearance, sound, or spelling rather than their meanings or referential associations.
L’Amour presents a French word-object whose meaning is well known to English-speaking viewers. Despite Ruscha’s statements to the contrary, the drawing’s soft focus and lyrical expression reinforce the word’s romantic associations.
Minneapolis Institute of Art
1965–1969
Layout designer at Artforum as “Eddie Russia”
After college he worked as a layout artist for the Carson-Roberts advertising agency in Los Angeles, and from 1965 to 1969 as layout designer for Artforum magazine under the pseudonym “Eddie Russia”; in 1969 he was a visiting professor of printing and drawing at UCLA.
1966
“Every Building on the Sunset Strip” is published
A book of continuous photographs of a two-and-a-half-mile stretch of the 24-mile Sunset Boulevard.
1966
“Los Angeles Now” in London — his first European exhibition
Ruscha is included in “Los Angeles Now” at the Robert Fraser Gallery in London, his first European exhibition.
1967
Marries Danna Knego
He marries Danica “Danna” Knego, whom he met in 1965; the couple has two children, a son, Edward “Eddie”, and a daughter, Sonny.
1967–1970
Self-imposed exile from painting: gunpowder and graphite drawings
During a period of self-imposed exile from painting (1967–1970) he makes gunpowder and graphite drawings: single words in a trompe l'oeil technique, as if formed from ribbons of curling paper.
1968
First solo show in Europe, in Cologne
His first European solo show takes place in Cologne, at Galerie Rudolf Zwirner.