Stains: Topsoil

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.

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.

1970

The “Chocolate Room” at the Venice Biennale

Ruscha represents the United States at the Venice Biennale as part of a survey of American printmaking with an on-site workshop, and constructs “Chocolate Room”: 360 sheets of paper permeated with chocolate hang like shingles on the gallery walls, and the pavilion smells like a chocolate factory. In 2003 the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles acquires the installation (then worth about $1.5 million).

1970

Joins the Leo Castelli Gallery

He joins the Leo Castelli Gallery; his first solo exhibition there will come only in 1973.