Ed Ruscha

Louisa Guinness Gallery, London

Sotheby's New York: Sculpture to Wear, Summer 2021

Acquired from the above by the present owner

Sculpture to Wear: An Introduction to Artist Jewellery, Louisa Guinness Gallery and Sotheby's, 2021, p. 45

Ed Ruscha (b. 1937) has consistently combined the cityscape of Los Angeles with vernacular language to communicate a particular urban experience. His work encompasses painting, drawing, photography, and artist's books, and his particular love of text shines through. His parents fostered his nascent interest in cartooning as a boy and in 1956 he moved to LA, studying at Chouinard (now CalArts) through 1960. He claims Jasper Johns and Marcel Duchamp as inspirations, and Ruscha himself has been highly influential in the American Pop Art movement. His work is collected by celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio and Jay-Z and museums like the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, SFMoMA, and the Whitney in New York. Ed Ruscha’s love for typography and graphic arts comes clearly in his white gold Here Bookmark, designed wittily to be placed between pages that say ‘Artists who make ‘pieces’ and ‘Artists who do books.’ Ruscha does both proudly, and his oeuvre is certainly worthy of that label.