- 413
Ed Ruscha
Estimate
800,000 - 1,200,000 USD
Log in to view results
bidding is closed
Description
- Ed Ruscha
- Fountain of Crystal
- signed and dated 2009 on the reverse
- acrylic on canvas
- 30 1/8 by 36 1/8 in. 76.5 by 91.8 cm.
Provenance
Gagosian Gallery, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Exhibited
London, Gagosian Gallery, Crash: Homage to JG Ballard, February - April 2010
Literature
Ulf Erdmann Ziegler, “Gehen mir die Rechtecke aus, male ich quadratisch,” Monopol 2010, pp. 40–41, illustrated in color
Exh. Cat. Grand-Hornu, Musée des Arts Contemporains, S.F. — Art, Science, Fiction, November 2012 - February 2013, p. 184, illustrated in color
Robert Dean and Lisa Turvey, Eds., Edward Ruscha: Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Volume Seven: 2004-2011, New York 2017, cat. no., P2009.11, pp. 328-329, illustrated in color
Exh. Cat. Grand-Hornu, Musée des Arts Contemporains, S.F. — Art, Science, Fiction, November 2012 - February 2013, p. 184, illustrated in color
Robert Dean and Lisa Turvey, Eds., Edward Ruscha: Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Volume Seven: 2004-2011, New York 2017, cat. no., P2009.11, pp. 328-329, illustrated in color
Condition
This work is in excellent condition overall. There is evidence of faint scattered dust throughout the surface, only visible under close inspection and in certain raking light. 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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.
Catalogue Note
“'A fountain of spraying crystal erupted around them' in this work is a quote from Crash by J.G. Ballard — the first of his books that I read. It is like your windshield breaking in front of you and the shattering glass. This book hit me between the eyes.” Ed Ruscha
Epic and incisive, Ed Ruscha’s Fountain of Crystal alludes to Crash, the provocative novel by J.G. Ballard that garnered instant fame in 1973 for its examination of the perverse conflation of car crashes and sexual fantasy. In Crash, Ballard’s lucid descriptions of human calamity convey an eerie poignancy, and it is in the present work that Ruscha unveils the raw candor and visual potential within the author’s incendiary text – “A fountain of spraying crystal erupted around them.” For Ruscha, these words posit an image of shattering glass, like that of a film still capturing the frozen moment in time as a windshield makes impact, exploding into thousands of icy fragments before one’s eyes. Accentuating Ruscha’s wit and irony within his corpus of text-based works, Fountain of Crystal subverts the suggested tragedy and otherwise tumultuous undertones of Ballard’s quote through this overly pragmatic and stylized presentation. Blasted across the composition in a tone of wry indifference, the composition cooly reaffirms the dire reality such words represent. Commenting further on Ballard’s novel, Ruscha reflected: “Just the single concept of decay is so well approached by this author. I thought if I was ever to meet him, what would I find? I'd find some kind of angry and twisted personality - but he was kind and gentle. In some ways ordinary, although I'm sure he didn't lead an ordinary life. He made me appreciate concrete abutments, which appear in Concrete Island when a car crashes and the man can't escape because there are motorways on both sides of the island.”
Boasting a fascinating backstory rooted in Ballard’s novel and Ruscha’s reaction to it, Fountain of Crystal is distinguished as an especially rich example from Ruscha’s series of Mountain Paintings that encompass some of the most visually striking and conceptually challenging works in his oeuvre. For these works, Ruscha sources his snow-capped peaks from the glossy pages of magazines and books illustrating the Himalayas, recreating their imposing summits and shadowy crags in painstaking detail upon his canvases. Without the captions and sidebars that accompany these images in print, however, Ruscha’s mountains acquire the stereotypical quality of theatrical backdrops, denying any attempt to locate them in time or space. Rather than summoning the scholarly sentiment of National Geographic, the paintings of mountains seem to draw inspiration from the familiar emblem of Paramount Pictures, a majestic mountain peak with a halo of blazing stars. In the artist’s own words, “If I’m influenced by movies, it’s from way underneath, not just on the surface. A lot of my paintings are anonymous backdrops for the drama of words. In a way they’re words in front of the old Paramount Studios mountain…The backgrounds are of no particular character. They’re just meant to support the drama, like the ‘Hollywood’ sign being held up by sticks” (the artist cited in Richard D. Marshall, Ed Ruscha, London 2003, p. 239).
Executed with the seismic energy and elemental graphic force that typify the artist's electric body of work, Fountain of Crystal encapsulates the genius of Ruscha's unique aesthetic vernacular. While constituting a new chapter in his career-long examination of Hollywood and Los Angeles as cultural symbols, the painting refuses straightforward analysis, instead fusing high and low culture with the witty irony that has become the artist’s trademark. As Kerry Brougher notes, Ruscha’s text paintings are “fragments of reality that have been mostly spotted from the artist’s car, these words, when hung together, read almost like signposts along a highway, a landscape seen through the windshield,” as such, the paintings form part of a wider picture of American culture (Kerry Brougher, "Words as Landscape," in Exh. Cat., Washington, D.C., Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (and travelling), Ed Ruscha, 2000, p. 161). With a self-referential lens, Fountain of Crystal alludes to the artist himself – an honest internalization of Ballard’s searing and influential fiction. Reflecting on the impact of Crash, Ruscha said, “[Ballard] had a way of describing what we all ignore – these roadways, ramps and utility items in our lives, which we tend to overlook. I'm not directly driven by his writing- but this man glorified something that people forget or put out of their minds. Maybe that's what I'm trying to do, and in some ways that makes a direct line from him to me."
Epic and incisive, Ed Ruscha’s Fountain of Crystal alludes to Crash, the provocative novel by J.G. Ballard that garnered instant fame in 1973 for its examination of the perverse conflation of car crashes and sexual fantasy. In Crash, Ballard’s lucid descriptions of human calamity convey an eerie poignancy, and it is in the present work that Ruscha unveils the raw candor and visual potential within the author’s incendiary text – “A fountain of spraying crystal erupted around them.” For Ruscha, these words posit an image of shattering glass, like that of a film still capturing the frozen moment in time as a windshield makes impact, exploding into thousands of icy fragments before one’s eyes. Accentuating Ruscha’s wit and irony within his corpus of text-based works, Fountain of Crystal subverts the suggested tragedy and otherwise tumultuous undertones of Ballard’s quote through this overly pragmatic and stylized presentation. Blasted across the composition in a tone of wry indifference, the composition cooly reaffirms the dire reality such words represent. Commenting further on Ballard’s novel, Ruscha reflected: “Just the single concept of decay is so well approached by this author. I thought if I was ever to meet him, what would I find? I'd find some kind of angry and twisted personality - but he was kind and gentle. In some ways ordinary, although I'm sure he didn't lead an ordinary life. He made me appreciate concrete abutments, which appear in Concrete Island when a car crashes and the man can't escape because there are motorways on both sides of the island.”
Boasting a fascinating backstory rooted in Ballard’s novel and Ruscha’s reaction to it, Fountain of Crystal is distinguished as an especially rich example from Ruscha’s series of Mountain Paintings that encompass some of the most visually striking and conceptually challenging works in his oeuvre. For these works, Ruscha sources his snow-capped peaks from the glossy pages of magazines and books illustrating the Himalayas, recreating their imposing summits and shadowy crags in painstaking detail upon his canvases. Without the captions and sidebars that accompany these images in print, however, Ruscha’s mountains acquire the stereotypical quality of theatrical backdrops, denying any attempt to locate them in time or space. Rather than summoning the scholarly sentiment of National Geographic, the paintings of mountains seem to draw inspiration from the familiar emblem of Paramount Pictures, a majestic mountain peak with a halo of blazing stars. In the artist’s own words, “If I’m influenced by movies, it’s from way underneath, not just on the surface. A lot of my paintings are anonymous backdrops for the drama of words. In a way they’re words in front of the old Paramount Studios mountain…The backgrounds are of no particular character. They’re just meant to support the drama, like the ‘Hollywood’ sign being held up by sticks” (the artist cited in Richard D. Marshall, Ed Ruscha, London 2003, p. 239).
Executed with the seismic energy and elemental graphic force that typify the artist's electric body of work, Fountain of Crystal encapsulates the genius of Ruscha's unique aesthetic vernacular. While constituting a new chapter in his career-long examination of Hollywood and Los Angeles as cultural symbols, the painting refuses straightforward analysis, instead fusing high and low culture with the witty irony that has become the artist’s trademark. As Kerry Brougher notes, Ruscha’s text paintings are “fragments of reality that have been mostly spotted from the artist’s car, these words, when hung together, read almost like signposts along a highway, a landscape seen through the windshield,” as such, the paintings form part of a wider picture of American culture (Kerry Brougher, "Words as Landscape," in Exh. Cat., Washington, D.C., Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (and travelling), Ed Ruscha, 2000, p. 161). With a self-referential lens, Fountain of Crystal alludes to the artist himself – an honest internalization of Ballard’s searing and influential fiction. Reflecting on the impact of Crash, Ruscha said, “[Ballard] had a way of describing what we all ignore – these roadways, ramps and utility items in our lives, which we tend to overlook. I'm not directly driven by his writing- but this man glorified something that people forget or put out of their minds. Maybe that's what I'm trying to do, and in some ways that makes a direct line from him to me."