The LACMA has devoted to Ruscha it’s entire second floor of the East wing of the Foundation Broad’s building. Considering the huge amount of work produced by the Master it could have been bigger. This cannot be considered as a retrospective but certainly as an excellent overview of Ruscha’s works and progression – both intellectual and technical- BCh
Some artworks stay stuck in your mind at the moment you see them. Then a sort of underground mental work is quietly in process in your brain and suddenly -stronger than another- a clue appears clearly helping to unlock all understanding. This is what happens when you are lucky enough to meet with ed Ruscha’s brilliant artwork. Ruscha explores the iconography of the classic American Standards
Since his first artist book, “Twentysix Gasoline Stations” (1962) with the photographs shown at Ferus Gallery in 1964, Ruscha has never stopped working on what has become his signature. The composition -with the diagonal of the roof that cuts the image in two parts- and the limitation of colors used remains consistent, each iteration has a different treatment. When you take closer look at the date of creation and the look of the Standard made at this time you can notice that the Standard is the perfect reflection of its time.
