THIS WEEK’S MUSE
EDWARD RUSCHA, ARTIST
“When I began painting, all my paintings were of words which were guttural utterances like Smash, Boss, Eat. Those words were like flowers in a vase.”
Word art is a form of creative expression that developed in popularity in the 20th century to include text (and numbers, punctuation, and symbols) as a component of the overall creative work. It isn’t typically considered a distinct art movement in itself—though it is growing in popularity, particularly through social media—but as a style it often appears as a thread through other movements such as Surrealism, Dadaism, and particularly Pop Art.
Sometimes words are introduced because of their ideological or political meaning, or simply constitute a visual effect.
Edward Ruscha is an American artist who has achieved recognition for incorporating words and phrases into his paintings, under the influence of or inspiration from the Pop Art movement.
“All my artistic response comes from American things, and I guess I’ve always had a weakness for heroic imagery.”
An artistic instinct awakened in Ruscha on a road trip to Los Angeles. Mesmerized by the utilitarian form and design of remote gas stations dotted along the wide-open landscapes, their isolation, functionality, and “laconic sloganizing” in the form of advertising have arguably informed his work ever since.
“I’m interested in glorifying something that we in the world would say doesn’t deserve being glorified. Something that’s forgotten, focused on as though it were some sort of sacred object.”
In 1962 Ruscha’s work was shown—along with Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, and others—in the “New Painting of Common Objects” – an important early “Pop Art” exhibition in America. From 1966 to 1969, Ruscha created his “liquid word” paintings, as if with liquid spilled, dribbled, or sprayed over a flat monochromatic surface.
His gunpowder and graphite drawings feature a trompe l’oeil technique, as if the words are formed from ribbons of curling paper. Experimenting with humorous sounds and rhyming wordplay, Ruscha made a portfolio of seven mixed-media lithographs with the rhyming words, News, Mews, Pews, Brews, Stews, Dues, News.
He has continued to link language into his visual art throughout his career. Typography itself becomes as integral and important to a work as color or composition. Experiments with a range of materials—gunpowder, vinyl, blood, red wine, fruit and vegetable juice, grease, chocolate syrup, tomato paste, coffee, caviar, flowers, eggs and grass have all found their way into his art—supplement and compliment is a unique approach to creativity.
When he needs space, he returns to his house in the Mojave Desert. “The constant reminder that there is very little change, even over 40 or 50 years, invigorates me.” The emotional or aesthetic satisfaction of isolation that has punctuated (pun intended!) his work since that desert trip as a young man continues to appeal to Ruscha.
“I’m interested in glorifying something that we in the world would say doesn’t deserve being glorified. Something that’s forgotten, focused on as though it were some sort of sacred object.”
HAPPENING
April 18, 19, 25, 26. 9am–1pm
CREATING A WALL CABINET
With Stephen Conlin
Join us and discover how to build a vintage-style wall cupboard.
Member: $274, Non-member: $306