Royal Road Test

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.