Ed Ruscha

Matthew Marks Gallery, New York

Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2007

"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." — Edward Ruscha

As one of the pioneers of West Coast Pop Art, Ed Ruscha executed an incredibly diverse number of artworks, ranging from painting, drawing, print, photography, film to other less categorical experiments such as artist’s books. Inspired by artists such as Bruce Nauman, he started producing photographs in 1974 after having mostly focused on his famous word pictures.

A year after Ruscha started with this new medium, he completed Tropical Fish, a set of five screenprints in color in which the artist captures vibrant still lifes. The different images stage banal objects on colorful backgrounds that the artist, through his careful framing, brings to life. By playing with ordinary objects, this set of prints stems from Ruscha’s Pop Art background, but also depicts influences from several other movements that inspired his work such as Conceptual Art, Surrealism and Dadaism. These bright images characterize his stylistic technique of combining high and low inspiration and his striking visual design aesthetic which have made his work popular.