Conceived as a reader to Ed Ruscha's practice, this publication brings together original contributions and case studies by an international array of renowned art critics and writers including Robert Dean, Lisa Turvey, Cécile Whiting, Jean-Pierre Criqui, Anne Moeglin-Delcroix, Benoît Buquet, Briony Fer, Linda Norden, Michel Gauthier, Elizabeth A. Kessler, Margit Rowell, and John Tain. Among the specific areas discussed and developed in this book are Ruscha's early drawings, his relationship to literature and the Pictures Generation, and the legacy of his artist's book practice. Figures close to the artist propose their own subjective readings of his work as a way to renew our understanding of it. The volume includes a previously unpublished text by the artist and two portfolios of rarely seen works.
This book stems from an international symposium held in 2015 at the entre Pompidou, Paris.
Since the mid-1960s, Ed Ruscha has developed an iconic body of works,
simultaneously as a painter, a photographer (with such historical books
as "Twenty-Six Gasolines Stations," 1963), a filmmaker, and an acute
commentator of American culture. Born in 1937 and based in Los
Angeles, he is a key figure of the last few decades and one of the first
artists to have introduced a critique of popular culture and an
examination of language into the visual arts.
Edited by Benoît Buquet, Jean-Pierre Criqui, Larisa Dryansky.
Texts by Anne Moeglin-Delcroix, Briony Fer, Cécile Whiting, Ed Ruscha, Elizabeth A. Kessler, John Tain, Linda Norden, Lisa Turvey, Margit Rowell, Michel Gauthier, Robert Dean..
