Figures of Thinking: Convergences in Contemporary Culture

Book Description

Figures of Thinking presents a case for a new way of making art in a century that, even in its early years, has already brought great change and turmoil, from 9/11 to bombings and natural disasters. These events have caused a dramatic shift in how people perceive their lives and their world.

A candid and engaging conversation between curators Vicky A. Clark and Sandhini Poddar focuses on the intuitive, on art and artists that suggest and evoke responses rather than seek to analyze, testifying to a shared sensibility that belies the complexities of today's diverse and changing world. Featured artists include Rina Banerjee, Lesley Dill, Ellen Gallagher, Mona Hatoum, Adrienne Heinrich, Nina Katchadourian, Simone Leigh, Wangechi Mutu, Yuki Onodera, Kathy Prendergast, Barbara Weissberger, Heesung Yang, Cheryl Yun, and Zarina.

Book Description

The Catalogue Raisonn of the Paintings of Ed Ruscha is a six-volume series of books co-published by Steidl and Gagosian Gallery. This is the second volume, which contains entries on 178 paintings completed between 1971 and 1982--from the artist's crisis at the onset of the 70s, when he "quits painting pictures," to his first major museum retrospective, which opened in March 1982 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The catalogue includes a comprehensive exhibition history, bibliography and biographical chronology, as well as a preface by the Editor Robert Dean, an essay by UCLA Film Historian Peter Wollen examining Ruscha's use of color as it relates to his use of language, and an essay by the late Reyner Banham. Each volume of the catalogue, designed by Bruce Mau, has a stitched binding and a cloth cover with silver-colored embossing protected by an embossed slipcase. Specifications for subsequent volumes are the same.

Edward Ruscha: Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings. Volume One: 19581970

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Edward Ruscha: Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings. Volume One: 19581970
Yve-Alain Bois , and Ed Ruscha
Manufacturer: Steidl
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 3882439726
Release Date: 2004-03-02

Book Description

Switching to a career in fine art from his dream of becoming a commercial artist, Ed Ruscha first came into prominence in the early 60s with his large word paintings and paintings of commercial icons, such as 20th Century Fox and Standard Station, that related in manner and style to the nascent Pop art movement. Drawing on a variety of sources that also included his own drawings, prints, and artist's books, Ruscha was often associated with the west coast cool style, but ultimately his work confounded the art world with its sly and elusive sense of deadpan humor, as seen in his series of bird paintings and in the liquid word paintings that rounded out the decade. The Edward Ruscha Catalogue Raisonn of Paintings is a five-volume series under the general editorship of the Gagosian Gallery, and is a co-publication between Gagosian Gallery and Steidl Verlag. Volume One, on offer here, contains 137 paintings printed in full color from Ruscha's student period to the Pop- and Conceptual-inflected word paintings of the 60s. The catalogue includes a comprehensive exhibition history, bibliography, and biographical chronology, as well as an appreciation by former Menil Collection director Walter Hopps and an essay exploring Ruscha's pioneering use of language as a subject matter by art historian Yve-Alain Bois of Harvard University. Set in Franklin Book type and printed on acid-free, 170-gram Job Parilux paper, each volume of the catalogue has a stitched binding and a cloth cover with silver-colored embossing protected by an embossed slipcase. Specifications for subsequent volumes are the same. All reproductions were converted to digital form, thanks to which process it has been possible to restore the reproductions of long-lost paintings. Ed Ruscha was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1937 and grew up in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma from 1941 to 1956. He moved to Los Angeles, California and attended the Chouinard Art Institute from 1956 to 1960. His work has been exhibited internationally and is represented in major museums and private collections throughout the world. In 2001, Ruscha was elected to The American Academy of Arts and Letters as a member of the Department of Art.

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Ruscha / Writing / Painting
Nice Little Book
A must for all Ruscha fans/influencees
very nice

They Called Her Styrene, Etc.
Ed Ruscha
Manufacturer: Phaidon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0714840114

Customer Reviews:

Ruscha / Writing / Painting.......2005-05-04

Bob Perelman was thumbing through my copy of Ed Ruscha's They Call Her Styrene (Phaidon, 2000) the other evening, which raises the question of intermedia from another angle. Ruscha, if you don't know his work, is a painter and photographer associated with the 1960s Los Angeles scene that proved to be an intersection between Pop, Funk and Conceptual art. His work takes different forms, but Styrene is representative of the works that have most attracted me: prints, drawings and watercolors involving anything from a single word to short phrases, often against backgrounds that are close to monochromatic but which may suggest a picturesque element. Styrene collects some 600 of these works into a single, affordable volume - I've seen individual paintings priced as high as $45,000. My question is this: fine as they are as visual works of art, are Ed Ruscha's text pieces also writing?

Ruscha himself has a cryptic, but intriguing comment right at the end of the book: "Sometimes found words are the most pure because they have nothing to do with you. I take things as I find them. A lot of these things come from the noise of everyday life." End of comment.

So far as I know, Ruscha has not undertaken to publish these works as writing, nor in the context of writing. As visual art, these works inhabit that territory that utilizes language for its own purposes. Its closest kin in that vein may be the signage of Jenny Holzer, the paintings of Lawrence Weiner, or the poster paintings of Barbara Krueger, but the more densely textual pseudo-philosophical musings of Joseph Kosuth and Art Language aren't entirely unrelated either. Ruscha's prints and paintings make use of color and the illusions of depth and texture in ways that Holzer's do not and his works often lack the overt political commentary one finds in her work and in that of Krueger's. At its most plain, a Ruscha work might consist of white sans serif letters centered against a black background:

A HEAVY

SHOWER

OF SCREWS

or

THICK BLOCKS

OF

MUSICAL FUDGE

or

WARM

AUDITORIUM

While Holzer has executed some pieces etched into benches, a form that has to recall the (literally) concrete poems of Scottish poet Ian Hamilton Finlay, Ruscha's droll texts strike me in many ways being better writing. If, that is, they are writing at all. The last text above, for example, makes great use of the recurrence of the a, r and m sounds (not to mention the echo of the w one hears in the two instances of the u), an attention to the smallest of details that might be more apt to associate with the poetry of Robert Grenier. Microwriting such as this can invoke every pleasure one expects from the best of poetry. The first two pieces above aren't bad either - both use the same strategy of invoking a single term that is "out of context" in its phrase (screws and musical), which functions to set the language around it into a kind of relief, classic demonstrations of what the Russian formalists called ostrananie, Brecht "the alienation effect," and which Pound characterized as "making it new."

In addition to reminding me at moments of Grenier, some of the more visually complex of Ruscha's pieces, where richly textured "3D" words float in idealized pastel skies, remind me of how Hannah Weiner used to describe her visual hallucinations, words that would appear on people's foreheads that to her seemed to be composed in "dog fur" or similar materials. Weiner used these messages to create her "clairvoyant" works, although that aspect of such found language is not carried through her writing - the closest she gets is to occasionally "erase" some lines of certain letters.

All of which makes Ed Ruscha's texts function as an intriguing test of the boundaries of writing - how can a lone word such as "fud," written in what looks like white ribbon on an intense red surface (onto which the letters cast shadows) function as a poem? It can / It can't / It can / It can't - like a Necker cube or other optical illusions, the text strobes in and out of the realm of literature (though it always remains within the realm of the visual). It may be that this flicker effect is precisely Ed Ruscha's contribution to writing.

Nice Little Book.......2002-03-04

I gave this one to a friend who never heard of Ruscha before. He loved it. It's a little unpretentious experience through Ruscha's world. It's not that kind of 7-colour-printed-on-coated-expensive-paper, but works very well as good entertainment and a valid introduction to west coast fine artists. Worth its price.

A must for all Ruscha fans/influencees.......2001-11-01

Funny, but it seems as though every time a new Ed Ruscha book gets released, it then becomes the standard "must-have" edition. In my opinion, this is an excellent book for the price, even if only for a single viewing. What I mean is this: it's more like an object than a book, due to its small area (but thick volume), and lack of publisher information distraction - the absolute first page blatently plunges you into the art immediately. It will take the average art fan a good two hours alone viewing each plate at a contemplative pace. I have had two art shows myself, and Ed's work is by far my closest influence, so I am heavily biased. This book lacks the token interview with the artist, and also his other forms of work (notably the parking lot photography series, which is a sheer delight in its own right), but for the sake of the design, perhaps the book as it is says all it has to say (no pun intended, if you're familiar with his works). Part of the fun, though, with viewing these kinds of Ed's works, is reading his titles and materials used, as they are equally insightful; yes, I miss that. But the average or novice art buff wouldn't even notice it missing. All things considered, this is a great little form of entertainment all contemporary art lovers should own.

very nice.......2000-12-03

My adventures with They Called Her Styrene began on a subway ride in Boston earlier this month. I saw an older woman flipping through a book, each page containting a picture with a few words written on it. I started looking with her as as she flipped through it. She flipped through it for about 20 minutes, and then my stop was next. I was worried I would never know the title of this book, and, being too shy to ask, would leave the train and be unsatisfied. Luckily, just as the train stopped, she closed the book and I saw the title.

I bought it shortly afterwards.

I already described it- it's a book of pictures with words across them. I enjoy it very much. As you sit and thumb through all of the pages, each word or group of words, combined with the colors on the background, conjur all sorts of thought and feelings inside you.

For me, it serves very well to just sit and thumb through it, looking at all the pictures and letting my mind wander as the book prescribes.

Amazon.com

Prominent art critic Peter Schjeldahl once wrote that "to know the art of Ed Ruscha, you should know something about Los Angeles, and the reverse: knowing something about Ruscha's art will help you with Los Angeles." Today Edward Ruscha is considered a major voice in postwar American painting and one of contemporary art's most significant graphic artists. Edward Ruscha: Editions 1959-1999 presents the entire oeuvre of this innovative artist, whose subject and sensibility are uniquely American. Ruscha began his career as a commercial artist, and the visual language of advertising and his interest in typography as both word and image have exerted a profound influence on his art over the years. He says, "I like the idea of a word becoming a picture, almost leaving its body, then coming back and becoming a word again." His works often depict the interplay between bold letterforms and a more atmospheric background, a visual strategy that has become a Ruscha signature. For example, in Hollywood (1968), Ruscha created a panoramic image of low hills dramatically silhouetted against the blazing heat and hazy sky of a California sunset. The word Hollywood, reminiscent of the famous sign, sits directly on the horizon, angled toward us in capital letters and seemingly emerging from the setting sun itself.

This catalogue raisonné was published on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name, originating at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and traveling to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and other venues through early 2001. Both the catalogue and the exhibition document 40 years of Ruscha's innovative work, and they feature 17 artist's books, such as Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1963); a group of photographs taken on the historic Route 66; and some 300 prints, including a fragrant installation made entirely of paper sheets screen-printed with chocolate. Two large, slim, silvery hardback volumes are presented in a handsome black fabric-covered slipcase. Volume 1 illustrates hundreds of prints, books, and other projects with small, numbered images laid out like a series of film cells or words going by on an LED sign. Volume 2 includes entries for each piece and essays about the prints and artist's books, neither of which have ever been discussed in a publication of this scope. --A.C. Smith

Book Description

This slip-cased, two volume publication presents a comprehensive look at the print projects, editions, and artist books of Edward Ruscha.... This monumental book reveals the depths of Ruscha's printmaking process, and offers important insight into the unique aesthetics of a major artist.

Customer Reviews:

rush to buy ruscha.......2004-01-19

a must have book for fans of Ruscha and/or contemporary art/ print collectors/dealers in general. I use this reference material frequently. my one gripe is that many of the reproductions are small and very difficult to see clearly. the two volumes are also a bit confusing. but, certainly a worthwhile addition to my art book collection.

Edward Ruscha: Editins 1959-1999.......2003-10-04

The most disapointing book I have ever bought. I am truly in a state of confusion. Mr. Engberg has made the most self indulgent art cataloug imaginable. The reproductions in this book are not just small, not tiny, but miniscule. The gasoline station photographs are literally one inch squares, while three quarters of each page is left completely blank! Ed Rusha's art work is phenomenal, and I have looked forward with huge anticipation for this book, however, I cannot imagine what was going through Mr. Engberg's mind when he made the reproductions unbelievably tiny. It seems he wanted to get in on the action and made this book with an eye for design. It is true that the each page has a nice design, but the book is, about the artwork of Edward Ruscha, not about you Mr. Engberg!!!
I reiterate the reproductions are so small that one can scarcely see them. This is not an exageration an injustice has been done. Please Siri Engberg reprint the book with consideration for the viewer. Until he does I beg you dear reader to buy any, any other book about Ruscha's art.

Ed Ruscha from A-Z with all the attractions in-between.......2000-08-28

This two-volume set about the work of LA artist Edward Ruscha is in itself a work of art. It's a complete catalog of EVERY print, photograph, series and book Ruscha created from the earliest days of his career until the end of the last century. And because Ruscha's work has its roots in graphic design, it translates well to book format. Many catalogs miss the texture or scale of an artist's work, but this one manages to capture the experience of seeing Ruscha's work in person. Add to that numerous interesting essays and more details about the artist and his work than one can ever grasp, and you'll see why I think that... it's a deal. An impressive work about an important contemporary artist.

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Ed Ruscha - Paintings
Adam Gopnik
Manufacturer: Gasgosian Gallery
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 188015479X

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Ed Ruscha: Course of Empire
Joan Didion , Linda Norden , Donna De Salvo , Ed Ruscha , and Frances Stark
Manufacturer: Hatje Cantz Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 3775716548
Release Date: 2005-09-15

Book Description

Inspired by the symmetrical, Jeffersonian layout of the American Pavilion's Neoclassical architecture, and by Thomas Cole's cycle of the same name, Ed Ruscha installed this ten-painting exhibition titled Course of Empire at the 2005 Venice Biennale. Five pieces are painted in color and five in black and white. The artist paired each work from his 1992 Blue Collar series with a new color canvas depicting the future of the same urban landscape, some deteriorated, some growing and changing, some seemingly gentrifying. The exhibition will travel in 2006 to The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Essays from Linda Norden, the U.S. Commissioner for the Venice Biennale, and artist Frances Stark celebrate the work, while Joan Didion's coolly written but deeply felt piece about her own brokenhearted longing for Los Angeles hits a perfect note.

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Ed Ruscha reviewed by the only correct source
an amusing family that will make you cringe
Brilliant
Smashingly confrontational with humorous grit!
worth a look

Ed Ruscha
Neal Benezra , Kerry Brougher , Phyllis Rosenzweig , and Ed Ruscha
Manufacturer: Scalo Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Ed Ruscha

ASIN: 3908247330

Amazon.com

Hollywood, gas stations, and the airbrushed style of commercial graphics figure predominantly in Ed Ruscha's art. One of the first artists to use text and pop imagery in his paintings, he captured the America of Route 66 and the Sunset Strip. Not tied down to painting, he produced books of photographs that catalog life with a dry, deadpan humor, including Thirtyfour Parking Lots, Nine Swimming Pools, and Some Los Angeles Apartments. Ruscha began his artistic endeavors with plans to become a commercial artist. With his 1956 arrival in Los Angeles and its art community, he was fast on his way to becoming a major creative force with a uniquely American perspective.

The publication of Ed Ruscha coincides with the first traveling retrospective of Ruscha's work in nearly 20 years. Launched at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., the show covers his illustrious career from the 1960s through the present. If you can't make it to any of the show's other stops--Chicago, Fort Worth, Miami, or Oxford, England--then this book is a must-have. Included are three essays that elaborate on Ruscha's paintings, use of language, and photography in the context of art history by drawing parallels to earlier American painters and the history of documentary photography. Ruscha defies categorization by straddling both pop and conceptual art with his funny, elegant, and thoughtful work. --J.P. Cohen

Book Description

One of the most consistently inventive artists of recent times, Los Angeles-based Ed Ruscha has been a pioneer in the use of language and imagery drawn from the popular media. From his early powerful word paintings to his influential artist books of the sixties and seventies to his recent colorful views of generic mountains, Ruscha has investigated the spaces between highways and journeys, images and words, abstraction and representation, public imagery and the contemporary landscape. In this publication, which accompanies a major retrospective exhibition organized by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. and the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, Neal Benezra, Kerry Brougher, and Phyllis Rosenzweig focus on all aspects of Ruscha's career, revealing him not merely as an artist closely linked with Los Angeles, but as an important international figure in contemporary art.

Customer Reviews:

Ed Ruscha reviewed by the only correct source.......2001-01-13

My friend is named Dan and he really likes this book. He first showed it to me outside during recess. We are both only 13 . If I had to chose over either this Ed Ruscha book or a Sega dream cast, playstation 2, alot of chocolate, a gun that looked real but wasn't, but felt real cause it was so heavy, I would choose the gun, probably because I couldn't get a gun now( I am not 21) and because none of my friends have ever seen a gun, it would be cool. But I still would like to flip through this book, but I don't know if I'd buy it, especially with my own money.

an amusing family that will make you cringe.......1999-11-29

The first time i browsed through this book, i thought Richards family are totally mad.Some of the photos made me feel sick especially the one where Richards mum and dad have spilt gravy down thier tops. I've never seen anything like it in my life. The visions where shocking but i was very hooked by the images, even though they made me cringe. I was interested by all clutter of ornaments and art deco chaotically arranged around the house. Also the kind of food brands they have which are very cheap such as nettos no frills, i found it very interesting to see how a poorer class family lives. Some of the picturs are really disgusting, i mean what is Ray actually doing sitting by the toilet,this book is totally mad so if you have n't seen it yet then you relly should. This is a book not to be missed!

Brilliant.......1999-11-05

Thought this book was the best I've seen for years. It's refreshing and I love it that he's not one of those patronising usual 90s artists who want to cash in on roughing it. This is real life. I loved his parents and his home. They are real and his photographs are amazing. Liked the mum and puzzle pic, the pic where she's feeding a kitten. REally great. Because they are honest. Make you laugh, make you cry kind of pics.

Smashingly confrontational with humorous grit!.......1999-08-05

At first I was aghast at this visually unappealing book; it's so raw. Then I took a closer look and realized that it's a courageous, confrontational and visually incredible slice of real life. No Hallmark card whimsy here! I enjoyed Ray's A Laugh because it isn't another glossy coffee table book with which to impress guests, but an often-times unpleasant look at a "real" family. I'm sure many Brits will be offended by this book, which makes it even better knowing that the underbelly of British society is exposed in these gritty and often-repulsive photos. If you want to stimulate conversation, leave this book out and watch the horror on people's faces as they skim the kitchen photographs; you'll never look and canned beans the same way. Not only is Ray a Laugh, but this book is one sick chuckle through & through. Kudos to the publisher who had the spirit and sense of ugliness to have these photographs made public! I plan to give this book as a gift to my friends who can appreciate a "velvet Elvis" or anything off center!

worth a look.......1999-06-26

This book is a bizarre family album, a collection of photos of his family and their lower class existence inside their apt. in an Enlish project. Pretty amazing stuff, very new german photo-esque, with oversaturated colors, off-focus at times, and tons of emotion in every shot. Check it out!

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ED RUSCHA: EARLY PAINTINGS
EDWARD). Hopper, Dennis & Jeffrey Deitch (RUSCHA
Manufacturer: Tony Shafrazi Gallery
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000PIDLA8

Ed Ruscha: The Word Paintings (Rizzoli/Gagosian Gallery Publications)

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Ed Ruscha: The Word Paintings (Rizzoli/Gagosian Gallery Publications)
Yves-Alain Bois
Manufacturer: Rizzoli
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Magritte & Contemporary Art: The Treachery of Images

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Magritte & Contemporary Art: The Treachery of Images

Manufacturer: audible.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Download

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