| Facts/Data
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Birth
1937 (Omaha, Nebraska)
Death
Lived/Active
California
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Often Known For
pop-word modeling illusions, photography
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California Painters
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Edward
Ruscha was born on December 16, 1937 in Omaha, Nebraska. He was brought
up in Oklahoma. In 1956 Ruscha drove west from Oklahoma City with
songwriter Mason Williams. At the time he was doing monosyllable word
paintings, as well as the paintings of gas stations, sunsets and the
Hollywood sign. He studied at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los
Angeles under Richard Rubin from 1956 through 1960. He served in the
United States Navy in Los Angeles at about the same time.
He
married Danna Knego, and in 1968 their only son, Edward Joseph Ruscha V,
was born. They called him Frenchy. In 1977, Ruscha and Danna were
divorced, but ten years later they remarried. They live in a low-slung
ranch house high in the Santa Monica Mountains. When their next door
neighbors moved out, they bought that house, and remodeled the two
houses together into a larger rambling one that suited them to
perfection. In addition Ruscha maintains a warehouse-sized studio in
Venice, California and a getaway house in Palm Springs.
Ruscha's
art elaborated language and popular culture and his quirky approach to
art made his work difficult to categorize. A truly remarkable fact is
that despite his success over the years he often had exhibitions in
which not a single painting was sold. He took this as a matter of
course and eventually his work sold, although it sometimes took several
years. He is very prolific; he paints and draws, using unexpected
materials in unexpected ways; photography looms very large in his
choice of media and through it all, words. He records the contemporary
scene in all its flavors.
He lectured on painting at the
University of California at Los Angeles in 1969 and 1970. When Frenchy
was twenty, they modeled together in magazine ads for the Gap clothing
store chain. He has appeared in several movies.
Written and submitted by Jean Ershler Schatz, artist and researcher from Laguna Woods, California.
Sources include:
"Pop Goes Los Angeles", article by Mark Stevens in Newsweek magazine, August 23, 1982
"The Last Word" by Ralph Rugoff in ARTnews magazine, December 1989
"Rancho Ruscha" by Hunter Drohojowska-Philip in Architectural Digest, date unknown
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Ed Ruscha became a prominent figure in the
fine arts in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. In 2004, he
was selected as the solo representative of the Unites States to the
Venice Biennale in June, 2005.
Working from a studio in
Hollywood, California, his work includeds painting, graphic artist,
photography, writing and filmmaking. He is especially known for
his witty paintings with calligraphic and numeric messages that reflect
urban imagery of American life, especially the West and Southern
California. Titles of his works include US 66, (1960; Twenty-Six Gasoline Stations, (1964); Real Estate Opportunities, (1970); and Honey, I Twisted Trhough More Danmed Traffic Today (1970).
He studied art at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles
between 1956 and 1960 and then served in the United States Navy,
traveled in Europe, and taught as artist-in-residence at numerous
universities and art schools.
Some of his earliest letter
painting were painted in his Paris hotel room from sketches he made of
subway signs, recognizable pop-culture images. Many of his
backgrounds were painterly, heavy with impasto. He has created
close to fifteen books featuring photographs that document American
gasoline stations, houses, and swimming pools, among other
subjects. Much of this subject matter came from his trips across
America, beginning in 1956 when he left his hometown of Oklahoma City
and drove west along Route 66 to Los Angeles, a trip he was to repeat
many times.
A special 2001 traveling exhibition of his work: "Edward Ruscha"
was held June-September 1 at The Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC and
from November 20 to June 3, 2001 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in
Chicago. Beginning January, 2006, a traveling exhibition, "Ed
Ruscha: Photographer", began touring Europe with an opening in Paris at
the Musee Jeu de Paume.
Sources include:
Dorothy Spears, "Road Trip", Art & Antiques, February 2006, p. 47-49
Matthew Baigell, Dictionary of American Art
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Biography from Rogallery.com:
| Born in Omaha, Nebraska, he became one of America's most productive figures in the fine arts in the late 20th century. Working from a studio in Hollywood, California, he is a painter, graphic artist, photographer, author and film maker and is especially known for his witty paintings with calligraphic and numeric messages that reflect urban imagery of life in Southern California.
He studied art at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles between 1956 and 1960 and then served in the United States Navy, traveled in Europe, and taught as artist-in-residence at numerous universities and art schools.
Some of his earliest letter painting were painted in his Paris hotel room from sketches he made of subway signs, recognizable pop-culture images. Many of his backgrounds were painterly, heavy with impasto.
In the 1980s a more subtle motif began to appear, again in a series of drawings, some incorporating dried vegetable pigments: a mysterious patch of light cast by an unseen window that serves as background for phrases such as WONDER SICKNESS and 99% DEVIL, 1% ANGEL. By the 1990s, Ruscha was creating larger paintings of light projected into empty rooms, some with ironical titles such as An Exhibition of Gasoline Powered Engines (1993).
A special traveling exhibition of his work: "Edward Ruscha" was held June-September 1 at The Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC and from November 20 to June 3, 2001 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.
Born and raised Catholic, Ruscha readily admits to the influence of religion in his work. He is also aware of the centuries-old tradition of religious imagery in which light beams have been used to represent divine presence. But his work makes no claims for a particular moral position or spiritual attitude.
Ruscha's work has been exhibited internationally for three decades and is represented in major museum collections. Among his other public commissions are a mural commissioned for the Miami-Dade Public Library, Miami, Florida (1985 and 1989); and for the Great Hall of the Denver Central Library, Colorado (1994-95). Ruscha is represented in Los Angeles by Gagosian Gallery and in New York by Leo Castelli Gallery. |
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