University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Sheldon Museum of Art Catalogues and Publications Sheldon Museum of Art 1990 Barns and Farms Christin J. Mamiya University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/sheldonpubs Part of the Art and Design Commons Mamiya, Christin J., "Barns and Farms" (1990). Sheldon Museum of Art Catalogues and Publications. 11. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/sheldonpubs/11 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Sheldon Museum of Art at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Sheldon Museum of Art Catalogues and Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. s H E L D o N SHELDON MEMORIAL ART GALLERY EDWARD RUSCHA JUNE 5 - AUGUST 19, 1990 postmodernist appropriation. part because of its insistence the ubiquitous marquees and As a result of this elusive on figuration, in contrast to billboards, Ruscha's paintings quality, his work has tended to the overwhelming of the Hollywood sign and receive only cursory mention predominance of abstraction movie studio trademark reflect in general overviews of the art in preceding and concurrent the pervasiveness of historical chronology. movements such as Abstract language and how it is used Since his emergence on Expressionism, Post-Painterly to authenticate the the art scene in the early Abstraction, and Minimal art. contemporary post-industrial 1960s, Ruscha's work has Through its content, style, and experience. evolved and matured. presentation, Pop art blatantly During the 1960s, Ruscha However, the one consistent exposed the commodification produced numerous art works and most significant aspect of art and of our society in which, like Hollywood, throughout his work is the general, and Ruscha's incorporated images from this emphasis on the work as the paintings reinforced this. environment. For example, central focus of his art. An His works Hollywood his images of Standard gas understanding of Ruscha's (1963) and Trademark 2 stations are appropriate icons use of the word is critical to a (1962), for example, depict for a city like Los Angeles T he art of Ed Ruscha has comprehension of his oeuvre. quintessential icons of a which was the first major been a consistent and Moreover, his emphasis on society infatuated with urban area to be designed important presence on the art the verbal is crucial because it celebrity and conspicuous around a freeway system. scene since 1960. Yet his illustrates important issues in consumption. Ruscha has Other paintings are replete works have not received the the art world during the past gone beyond simply with references to mass high visibility media coverage three decades. Ed Ruscha's incorporating the words media such as comic books, that the work of many of his works are thus incisive in their "Hollywood" and "20th newspapers and peers, such as Jasper Johns ability to lay bare critical Century Fox", but has chosen advertisements. and Andy Warhol, have aspects of art production and, to present them in That Ruscha's works of garnered. This situation can, reception, and it is this added immediately identifiable the late 1960s intersect with in part, be attributed to the dimension that lends greater forms--those of the sign high Pop art and focus on words fact that contemporary art import to his art. in the Hollywood Hills and the and images that call to mind criticism has tended to center In the early years of his logo of a well known the breezy, glitzy consumer around clearly defined career, Ruscha's paintings Hollywood studio. In so orientation of Los Angeles is movements, and Ruscha's were closely associated with doing, Ruscha directs our not surprising. Although he work has resisted easy the Pop art movement of attention to a contemporary was born in Omaha and raised categorization. In addition, the1960s because of their environment (as exemplified in Oklahoma City, Ruscha interpretations of his work focus on images from the by Los Angeles) in which moved to Los Angeles shortly have shifted over the past few contemporary urban, value is determined by after graduation from high decades--his work has been consumer-oriented surface appearance, market school in 1956. He made this cited in discussions of Pop art, environment. Pop was a value, and effective decision because, in his words, Conceptual art and, most pivotal movement in the advertising strategies. Like "California seemed the most recently, strategies of historical continuum of art in the words emblazoned across natural place to go. I suppose because of the media images we had seen, California had more appeal."1 This statement reveals the extent to which Ruscha was drawn to the glitter and "laid back" image of California that the media had cultivated, and indicates Ruscha's awareness of the power of the media. In the 1970s, Ruscha began to focus on isolated words on the canvas, rather than invoking words as an integral part of a specific product or symbol. His works of this period are appropriate illustrations of many of the conceptual issues with which artists at the time were grappling. These paintings ~ HOllYWOOD, 1968, colored serigraph, 17 518 x 44 3/8 in. Edward Ruscha was born in Omaha. Nebraska in 1937 and moved to Oklahoma City at a young age where porary Art, Los Angeles, Among his earliest were he was raised and became 1983. In 1987, "Made in three consecutive shows at interested in art at the age of U.S.A.: An American­ the Ferus Art Gallery, Los ten. After finishing high ization in Modern Art, the Angeles (1963, '64, '65) and school, he moved to Los '50s and '60s", University a history of almost yearly Angeles where he attended Art Museum, University of shows (1974-1989) at the Chouinard Art Institute. California, Berkeley. In Leo Castelli Gallery, New Since graduating from 1989 he was involved in York. Additional shows Chouinard in 1960, Ruscha "LA. Pop in the Sixties", include "The Works of has become an inter­ Newport Harbor Museum, Edward Ruscha", San nationally successful and Newport Beach, California Francisco Museum of prolific artist, participating in Ruscha has also partici­ Modern Art. On the over 300 exhibitions. He pated in many international occasion of this show which Ed Ruscha has also made two movies, group exhibitions. Some of toured nationally, the book in his studio. "Premium" (1969) and these are: "18th Salon of I Don't Want No Photograph by "Miracle" (1976), and Young Painters", Musee Retrospective was Jerry Fredrick. published a number of d'Art Moderne de la Ville de published. It is a compil­ books. He still resides in Paris,l967. In Brazil, that ation of Ruscha's work up Los Angeles where his same year, "Sao Paulo 9", to 1982. studio is located. Museu de Arte Moderna, His most recent one­ Group exhibitions in the Sao Paulo. In 1969, he person shows include: "Ed United States include "Pop participated in the 35th Ruscha/Selection of Art U.S.A." held at the Biennale Exposizione Graphic Works 1970-1982", Oakland Art Museum, Internazionale d'Arte Cirrus Editions, Ltd., Los California, 1963; "American Venezia in Venice, Italy and Angeles, 1983; Galleria del Drawing 1927-1977", in 1971 at the Hayward Cavallino, Venice, Italy, Minnesota Museum of Ar~ Gallery in London his work 1983; "4 x 6", Westfalischer Saint Paul, 1977; also in was exhibited in the show Kunstverein, Munster, West 1977, "The Dada/Surrealist "11 Los Angeles Artists". Germany, 1986; Robert Heritage", held at the His recent international Miller Gallery, San Francine Clark Art Institute, shows include: "Cinquante Francisco, 1987; "Edward Williamstown, Mass­ ans de Dessins Americains Ruscha: Recent Paintings", achusetts. In 1978, "Mirrors 1930-1980", l'Ecole Museum of Contemporary and Windows: American Nationale Superieure des Art, Chicago, 1988; "Words Photography since 1960" Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1985; Without Thoughts Never to was given by the Museum of "Hom mage a Leo Castelli", Heaven Go", Lannan Modern Art, New York and Galerie Daniel Templon, Museum, Lake Worth, also that year, "Words and Paris, 1987; "Changing Florida, 1988; Tokyo Images" organized by the Group Exhibition", Carsten Museum of Contemporary Renaissance Society at the Schubert Ltd., London, Art, Tokyo, Japan, 1989. University of Chicago. 1988; "Sigmund Freud Other group exhibitions Heute", Thaddaeus Ropac, include: "Language, Drama, Salzburg, Austria, 1989. Source and Vision" at the Ruscha's solo exhibitions New Museum of Contem- number over one hundred. • explored the relationship between the word and image, or the verbal and visual. Both aesthetics and linguistics are systems that involve underlying structures that condition how we communicate, and how we understand the world around us. By excerpting words from their recognizable contexts, Ruscha forces us to examine our preconceptions about language, visual images, and, ultimately, about the way in which we view the world. The formal aspects of visual art are addressed by the way in which Ruscha, during the 1970s, abstracted words from any grammatical contexts. By presenting CRACKERJACK, 1967, graphite on paper, 15 x 23112 in. single words or short phrases on the expansive canvas or liquid medium. Works such reminiscent of the sublime constituted "chairness." paper, he forces the viewer to as Eye (1969) force the landscapes of the Hudson Given that our society is focus on the formal qualities spectator to examine each River School painters of the language-oriented, and that, of the letter formation and on word as a unique entity, late 19th century, coupled with anthropologically-speaking, the tension between the flat divorced from any meaning or the large white words "Barns naming has the authority to two dimensionality of the signifying properties.