Ed Ruscha

Splinters and Seconal 1973 101

In 1970, Ruscha began a series of paintings made from stains. He experimented with a variety of materials (gun powder, dust, blood, among many others) to leave surface traces of different objects. The resulting images are negative shapes amidst...

Whose Needs 1973 101

In Whose Needs, the titular phrase floats on the surface of what appears to be a blurred landscape. Two vertical structures rise from the landscape to suggest a factory building with smoky chimneys fuming into the sunset. Ruscha’s...

Ed Ruscha’s work often uses the city of Los Angeles to look at the banality of urban life. He is known for his early conceptual works like the seminal 1962 Twenty-Six Gas Stations (1962) in which he photographed twenty-six gas stations to map of his journey between Los Angeles and Oklahoma. Often drawing material from mass media and playing with language, Ruscha’s works assume the form of painting, drawing, photography, as well as publications.