Major Retrospective of Ed Ruscha's Paintings at the Hayward Gallery in London |
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| Written by Ralph Rugoff |
| Saturday, 17 October 2009 01:15 |
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 Based in Los Angeles since the late 1950s, Ed Ruscha is
recognized for his pioneering work in a variety of media, including painting,
print-making, artist’s books, photography and film. His influence on painting
has been particularly significant and this exhibition reveals the wit and
ceaseless experimentation that have distinguished his contributions to this
medium. Over the course of his career, Ruscha has influenced cultural figures as
diverse as artists Richard Prince and Anselm Kiefer, architect Robert Venturi
and photographers Andreas Gursky and Jeff Wall. Presenting a total of 78 works
on canvas, "Ed Ruscha: Fifty Years of Painting" is the largest UK survey yet of
Ruscha’s output as a painter.The exhibition reveal’s the full depth and breadth of his achievements, from his use of graphic design and filmic devices to his experimentation with unusual materials and formats. Many of the paintings in the show have never before been seen in the UK and have been lent by both public and private collections from around the world. Ralph Rugoff, Director of the Hayward Gallery and curator of this exhibition, said: ‘Ed Ruscha is widely celebrated for the visual elegance and wit of his paintings, and this exhibition also reveals his insistently experimental approach to the medium as well as his charged takes on the contemporary cultural landscape. Whether trafficking in ambiguity and absurdity or scanning signs of social decay and decline, his paintings address us in ways that are at once playful and profoundly disorienting, and they remain as provocative today as they first did half a century ago.’ Words and phrases, set against a colored background or landscape, are at the center of Ruscha’s work, conjuring up a world of associations, at once playful and profound. The exhibition charts Ruscha’s ongoing interest in imaginatively exploring language as the subject of a non-verbal art form, from his early use of single words divorced of any meaning or context, to his ‘liquid word’ paintings – words seemingly poured rather than painted – and later, whole phrases, painted bold and authoritatively, yet often enigmatic in their meaning. Key word-based paintings featured in the exhibition include "Oof" (1962-63), "Boss" (1961), "Hurting the Word Radio # 2" (1964), and "Sand in the Vaseline" (1974).
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