Lot Essay
Ed Ruscha has long been fascinated by the power of words both as abstract entities as a series of shapes and as language. In order to heighten their effect, he isolates them and presents them in new contexts, disjointed and displaced. Ruscha's choice of words and images in Texas Hairspray are all harvested from the American vernacular. In a way that is similar to the Pop artists his sources are quaint and ordinary, such as road signs and advertising messages. While his distorted, de-contextualized words in isolation juxtaposed against strange backdrops also recalls hints of Surrealism.
Rucsha's elimination of color and working in nuances of black and white is an idea that he had been developing for over a decade. 'I remember in school about Franz Kline, thinking how great it was that this man only worked with black and white. I though at some point in my life I would only work in black and white-and here it is' (Ed Ruscha quoted by F. Fehlau, 'Ed Ruscha', Flash Art, January-February 1973, p. 125-28).
For the past four decades, Ed Ruscha has focused on words in his work, concentrating on the intersection between the literal and the pictorial. By painting and drawing words in a variety of media, he combines two types of signs, the arbitrary text and the descriptive visual, to expand our understanding of the nature and limits of communication. Ruscha's art points out the seemingly random and strange evolution of language as signs and symbols that are the cornerstones of civilization and essential to daily existence. Stating it is difficult to unravel art from language, Ruscha merges the two, creating works that are not easily decoded as either linguistic signifiers or as aesthetic images.
Rucsha's elimination of color and working in nuances of black and white is an idea that he had been developing for over a decade. 'I remember in school about Franz Kline, thinking how great it was that this man only worked with black and white. I though at some point in my life I would only work in black and white-and here it is' (Ed Ruscha quoted by F. Fehlau, 'Ed Ruscha', Flash Art, January-February 1973, p. 125-28).
For the past four decades, Ed Ruscha has focused on words in his work, concentrating on the intersection between the literal and the pictorial. By painting and drawing words in a variety of media, he combines two types of signs, the arbitrary text and the descriptive visual, to expand our understanding of the nature and limits of communication. Ruscha's art points out the seemingly random and strange evolution of language as signs and symbols that are the cornerstones of civilization and essential to daily existence. Stating it is difficult to unravel art from language, Ruscha merges the two, creating works that are not easily decoded as either linguistic signifiers or as aesthetic images.