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Ed Ruscha's works on paper appear almost photographic at first glance. They appear to be pencil on paper at second glance... And so it is a surprise to find that Base and Hot Folded Sheet have been rendered in the unlikely medium of gunpowder. Ruscha's interest in gunpowder as a medium came about in part because of his increasing fascination with stains. In part, it derived from his oil renderings of liquids being used in order to write words - Adios in a bean sauce, Annie in maple syrup and so forth. This presented Ruscha with a strange frustration as he confronted the limitations of his traditional painterly materials. He thus turned to liquids themselves as the media for his pictures, resulting in a preoccupation that took more and more of his time at the end of the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s. Indeed, for a couple of years he did not put oil onto canvas at all. 'There was a period when I couldn't even use paint,' he explained. 'I had to paint with unorthodox materials, so I used fruit and vegetable dyes instead of paint. I had to move some way, and the only way to do this was to stain the canvas rather than to put a skin on it' (E. Ruscha, quoted in N. Benezra, 'Ed Ruscha: Painting and Artistic License', pp. 145-155 in N. Benezra and K. Brougher (eds.), Ed Ruscha, exh. cat., Washington D. C. 2000, p. 153). The thematic echo between the absorption of the image by the viewer and the absorption of the image by the sheet upon which it has been rendered is reinforced by the links, in both Base and Hot Folded Sheet between the support and the theme. For in both these works on paper, the image appears to show paper. In Base, a paper ribbon appears to be standing on its edge, forming the curves and squiggles necessary to represent the word in a mysterious cursive. In Hot Folded Sheet, Ruscha appears to have taken a more pared-back, self-referential approach, showing a piece of paper on its edge, standing up, a strange echo of the potential sheet upon which the image has been captured. In this way, the works have a playful looping and riddling dimension as the content distortedly reflects the raw material of the pictures themselves, as objects. The latter work even plays on the viewer's expectations in a Ruscha, adding another layer of reference and content. Of all the 'stains,' gunpowder appears to have been the most successful, used often for the works on paper. It is a surprisingly versatile material: 'I soaked some gunpowder in water once, and I saw it separated all the salt out of it. I just did it as an experiment. The gunpowder itself is in granules. I could see it would make a good choice of materials; it could actually impregnate on paper. You could use it almost like charcoal - which it is, it's part charcoal - so then what I do is I'm removing the salt from it. It became a material that I could correct; mistakes could be corrected. The imagery is pretty much the same as with charcoal. I can't look at charcoal and tell the difference between it and gunpowder' (Ruscha, ibid., pp. 155-56). The gunpowder is then applied 'just with a sponge. Rub-a-dub style with a piece of cotton. It was a more fluid and faster medium than charcoal or graphite' (Ruscha, ibid., p. 156).

Ed Ruscha (b. 1937)

Base

Details

Ed Ruscha (b. 1937)
Base
signed and dated 'E. Ruscha 1971' (lower left)
gunpowder and dry pigment on paper
11½ x 28 7/8in. (29.2 x 73.4cm.)
Executed in 1971

Provenance

Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London.
Leo Castelli Gallery, New York.
Anon. sale, Christie's New York, 19 November 1997, lot 269.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

Special Notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis. On occasion, Christie's has a direct financial interest in lots consigned for sale which may include guaranteeing a minimum price or making an advance to the consignor that is secured solely by consigned property. This is such a lot. This indicates both in cases where Christie's holds the financial interest on its own, and in cases where Christie's has financed all or a part of such interest through a third party. Such third parties generally benefit financially if a guaranteed lot is sold successfully and may incur a loss if the sale is not successful.

Lot Essay

This work will be included in the forthcoming Edward Ruscha. Catalogue Raisonné of Works on Paper. Volume II 1970 - 1979, edited by Dr. Rainer Crone and Dr. Petrus Schaesberg.

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