ED RUSCHA | Honey

Private Collection, Seattle (acquired directly from the artist)
Thence by descent to the present owner

Seattle, Dootson/Calderhead Gallery, Edward Ruscha, May - June 1976

Lisa Turvey, Ed., Edward Ruscha: Catalogue Raisonné of the Works on Paper, Volume One: 1956-1976, New York 2014, cat. no. D1976.25, p. 423, illustrated in color

This work is in excellent condition overall. Please contact the Contemporary Art Department at 212-606-7254 for a professional condition report prepared by Alan Firsker. Framed under Plexiglas.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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Spelled out in a flowing ribbon, Ed Ruscha’s 1976 pastel Honey functions both as a testament to the power of the artist’s draftsmanship, as well as a monument to his inimitable conceptual vision. Projecting out from the background, Honey is sweet without being saccharine, gliding across an expansive field of color. The pastel background transitions in a gradient from a dusky green to a soft peach, emulating the sunset as it reflects on the clouds. This airy sense is magnified by the undulating letters in the center of the work, rendered to emulate a trailing advertisement behind an airplane. Part of a larger body of work where words are drawn in this style, pastels like Honey “reinforce the three-dimensionality of the words, which are seen in perspective and from a skewed angle, hovering in space like lost objects that have been released from the printed page and now inhabit their own realm” (Richard D. Marshall, Ed Ruscha, New York 2003, pp. 161-162). Though Ruscha had recently begun making artworks using multiple words instead of one, Honey constitutes a novel development for the artist in the combination of elements from his earlier trompe l’oeil drawings featuring single words, with his pastels of household objects like books, ball bearings and food. Honey conjures numerous associations: a love note; a conversation half overheard; the taste of something sweet. Ruscha employs these associations, joining them with sophisticated stylistic choices to distill them into a single word.