Ed Ruscha

Gagosian Gallery, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above

Cologne, Kolnischer Kunstverein, Light-heeled, Light-handed: Edward Ruscha, Julius Shulman, James Welling, February - April 2000

Robert Dean, ed., Edward Ruscha: Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Volume Six: 1998-2003, New York, 2013, no. P1999.12, p. 101, illustrated in color

This work is in very good condition overall. The edges of the canvas are fabric taped. Under very close inspection, an extremely small and unobtrusive brown spot accretion is visible 5 3/8 inches from the top edge and 1¼ inches from the right edge, likely present from the time of execution. Under Ultraviolet light inspection there is no evidence of restoration. Framed.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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Throughout his prolific career, Ruscha has focused on the interplay between word and image. Influenced by advertising, fascinated by typography, and enthralled by the world around him, Ruscha used unorthodox materials to create works with pop appeal and sardonic punch. Ruscha’s practice conveys a fascination with not only the meaning but also the look of language. In this seminal work from 1999, Ruscha unites the aesthetic of words as well as their meaning.

One of the most monumental works from Ruscha’s Metro Plots series, Sunset to Pico consists of nine parallel lines running diagonally across the canvas as if seen from a birds-eye view. Below each line runs an upside down word, further skewing the viewer’s perspective. To someone unfamiliar with Los Angeles geography, these words seem completely unrelated. These are, of course, the most recognizable east-west thoroughfares in Los Angeles. Ruscha’s depiction of these streets possesses elements of truth—they all do run side-by-side in the order in which Ruscha presents them—and fiction—they are never all parallel at the same time. The canvas is speckled with black paint reminiscent of the tar which covers the streets Ruscha has depicted. It should also be noted that there is a fair amount of open space in the canvas that aptly serves to mirror Los Angeles’ grand spaciousness. In Sunset to Pico, Ruscha perfectly captures the essence of Los Angeles as well as the way of life for all of its citizens in his trademark, erudite style.

When one considers how fundamental the advents of the automobile and Ed Ruscha were to LA’s economic and cultural coming of age tale in the 20^th Century, it was inevitable that the two would eventually come together. Ruscha, like all true Californians, is not actually from California. Born to a Catholic family in Omaha, Nebraska, Ruscha developed artistic interests and skills at an early age. Like his contemporaries Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, Ruscha began his drawing career as a cartoonist. He moved with his family from Nebraska to Oklahoma City, before going to college at Chouinard Art Institute (now Cal Arts) in Los Angeles. While at Cal Arts he studied under Robert Irwin, who would help bring him into the legendary Ferus Gallery group, which also included John Altoon, John McCracken, Larry Bell, and Ken Price. While at Ferus in the 1960s Ruscha would develop his word style paintings and his California-centric subject matter. Ruscha played a vital role in putting the Los Angeles art scene, which was previously disregarded as provincial to the intellectual hubs of New York and London, on the map in a major way.

Like Ruscha, automobiles also came to prominence in the 1960s and with it came car culture as we know it today. The Los Angeles freeway system, constructed under President Eisenhower in the late 1950s, was still in its nascent stages at the time but its impact was already profound. All of a sudden the entire city was open to a kind of democratic exploration. With a car and a pair of keys, the city’s residents could easily roam throughout the previously indomitable sprawl of Los Angeles. These roads promised a sense of endless possibilities to the city’s citizens, the same sense that brought many of their ancestors to city during the age of Manifest Destiny. These highways and the roads depicted in Ruscha’s Sunset to Pico offer an escape and an allure from the static to the dynamic.

The symbolic power of roads has played a role in Ruscha’s work since the beginning of his career. From the iconic early work Every Building on the Sunset Strip, where the artists walked slowly down the famous street and photographed every square block, to this awe-inspiring painting from the 1999, Ruscha has been contemplating roads ever since he arrived in Los Angeles. As an artist who constantly grapples with the idea of appearance and understanding of text, it is only natural that he would gravitate to streets. A street name provides a physical location and, especially in one’s hometown, an emotional memory. Ruscha leaves his boulevards very simply articulated so any viewer can approach this work and fill in the space between the lines with personal experiences on these famous roads.