The artistic development of the world-renowned artist Ed Ruscha

Ed Ruscha – to which art movement does he belong?

Ed Ruscha is one of the artists who express themselves in several media; the American artist works as a painter and graphic artist, as a photographer and book artist, and as a filmmaker .

Especially in the fields of painting, photography and book artistry, he has created groundbreaking works, which is why he is now considered Pop Art

The world into which Ed Ruscha was born

“Ed” Ruscha, whose full name is Edward Joseph Ruscha, was born on December 16, 1937, the same year as Rita Süssmuth, Dieter Thomas Heck, Jane Fonda, Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman and Anthony Hopkins, so he recently celebrated his 85th birthday.

For those born much later, the year 1937 is already marked by the Second World War, and indeed it was not a very pleasant year to see the light of day: The world watched the global political developments rather breathlessly and helplessly, as the signs of a war whose dimensions were unforeseeable were becoming increasingly clear.

In Europe, a covert unit of the German Wehrmacht, the “Legion Condor” , had just intervened in the Spanish Civil War in support of fascist leader Franco and razed the northern Spanish city of Guernica to the ground in an unprecedented and illegal act of terror.

Non-fascist Europe and the USA want to prevent a continental war and remain almost unresponsive to German power politics, but the Spanish Civil War has already mobilized artists and intellectuals: George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway work as war correspondents in Spain and take sides with the democratically elected government attacked by Franco.

How much Ed Ruscha experienced in his youth of the tense world situation and the subsequent Second World War is a matter for closer biographical examination. He was probably fortunate, however, to be largely spared traumatic contact with the events of the war: He was born in Omaha, Nebraska, which is pretty much in the middle of America, and in 1941 the family moved two states further south, to Oklahoma.

These two places of residence are both located in the heart of the agricultural region of the United States; if anyone was least affected by the war's actions emanating from the US and spreading throughout the world, it was probably the population living there. The period of his upbringing also needs to be placed in a more precise context: When the US entered the war on December 8, 1941, Ed Ruscha's fourth birthday was just around the corner, and by the end of the war, he was not even eight years old.

It is evident that regular school attendance was possible throughout his time in Oklahoma. Records show that Ed Ruscha began drawing comic strips as early as age ten (1947) and that he graduated from Classen High School in Oklahoma City in 1956.

It is a completely unsubstantiated assumption, but perhaps one of the absurdities of the wartime was even partly responsible for his love of comics : After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the fear of imminent chemical weapons attacks spread, and on this occasion the government began to distribute gas masks en masse to the population.

To present the gruesome device in a child-friendly way to the youngest Americans, the idea actually arose to make gas masks with Mickey Mouse faces for children, with Disney , and one of the few surviving Mickey Mouse gas masks is on display at the 45th Infantry Division Museum in Oklahoma...

Ed Ruscha's passion for comics and comic drawing would undoubtedly prove life-defining; it was the reason the country boy went to the heart of the Disney world, to Los Angeles (he actually wanted to go to San Francisco, but there was no formal arts program there). It was probably a good decision for him, as the artist still lives in Los Angeles today.

This is how Ed Ruscha came to art…

It was in 1956 that Ed Ruscha made his enthusiasm for comic drawing the basis of his choice of education: He went to Los Angeles, studied at the Chouinard Art Institute and attended the Walt Disney School of Illustrators .

Ed Ruscha must have personally experienced the legendary forefathers of the Disney studios , at least at the illustrator school, but the Disney brothers Walt (the father of Mickey Mouse) and Roy (the older brother and co-founder of the Disney studios with Walt) were also taking Chouinard into the California Institute of the Arts which was co-founded Walt Disney Company .

Ed Ruscha's training clearly demonstrates how much "comics" have always been part of art – at the California Institute of the Arts, "film and animation" just one of the departments (alongside art, music, dance, and theater). During his studies, Ed Ruscha didn't just draw funny characters; he also engaged deeply with Abstract Expressionism (which had developed in New York from 1940 onward and had now, around 1960, reached the other side of the USA).

…and so he became an artist

Ed Ruscha – The Tension of Words and Images | Artist Interview | TateShots

This contact with Abstract Expressionism is even considered quite formative for Ed Ruscha's art and is said to have significantly dominated his early public success. Ruscha was able to present his art to a larger, interested audience for the first time in a solo exhibition in 1963.

This happened at the legendary Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles , a gallery in the best traditional sense, which helped many artists to have their first solo exhibitions: in 1957, the assemblage artist Wallace Berman to start here; in 1958, the sculptor Billy Al Bengston and the painter Ed Moses their first chance at Ferus; in 1959, installation artist Robert Irwin and ceramic artist John Mason here for the first time; 1960 brought the forms and prints of Kenneth Price painter Llyn Foulkes and minimalist artist Larry Bell debuted at Ferus; and in 1963, Ed Ruscha.

This gallery also brought Ruscha into contact with new influences that referenced his love of comics: Ferus had recently (1958) begun to present not only West Coast art (i.e., artists from the West Coast) but also contemporary New York art solo exhibition of Andy Warhol to the West Coast, the famous artist who was then introducing "Pop Art" to the art world in New York.

A retrospective of Pop Art artworks by Ed Ruscha (on Pinterest)

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In the early 1960s, the Ferus Gallery also exhibited other artists who addressed or incorporated Pop Art themes. These included Jasper Johns (who is not considered a Pop Art artist himself, but is regarded as an important pioneer) and the second most important Pop artist, Roy Lichtenstein .

For while the Ferus Gallery may have been traditional in its aim to support young artists, it was anything but traditional in its taste in art; on the contrary, gallery director Irving Blum wanted to bring the latest contemporary art developments from New York to the far-flung West Coast as quickly as possible.

Ferus was modern, and other styles born from this gallery, which distinguished Ferus from the rest of the domestic art world, were the "Finish Fetish" style with its glossy surfaces and "Light and Space" art, which worked with perceptual phenomena. Pop Art itself was actually a very contrary influence for Ed Ruscha, because in the United States Pop Art referred precisely to the conscious departure from the painting of Abstract Expressionism, which Ruscha had previously embodied.

But the Pop Art artists were the ones who finally elevated comics into the realm of gallery art , so it's not surprising that Ed Ruscha eventually found his way to the Pop Art scene. Ruscha later compared the gallery to a jazz album, where a multitude of different voices were united under one record label: each with a very distinct way of seeing the world and art, which is why this place was unusually vibrant and inspiring.

This gallery had certainly given the young artist Ed Ruscha his crucial first appearance, and the vibrant art and artist life he experienced in the gallery's orbit decisively influenced his artistic development, right up to the works that are now classified as Pop Art.

Around this time, Ed Ruscha also began to develop as a photographic artist ; from 1962 onwards, he began to publish photo books with print runs of several hundred or thousand copies.

It was also a photobook that laid the foundation for Ruscha's status as a cult artist: “Twentysix Gasoline Stations” , published in 1963, became a cult object during the 1960s, and shortly afterwards it was considered the first modern artist's book, which would have a major influence on the artist's book culture that was then developing in America.

The book, titled “Twentysix Gasoline Stations” , did exactly what the title suggests: Ruscha photographed all 26 gas stations he passed along Route 66 on his way to visit his parents and printed them in his artist's book, each with a subtitle describing the brand and location.

Ed Ruscha: 'Twentysix Gasoline Stations' (1969)

The second artist's book with cult status followed in 1966: “Every Building on the Sunset Strip” is a photo book leporello in which every building that could be found on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood at that time is depicted.

Both projects are now milestones in photographic and conceptual art .

Ed Ruscha's Photography Books | Artist Interview | TateShots (Video about his artist books)

Joachim Rodriguez y Romero

Owner and Managing Director of Kunstplaza. Journalist, editor, and passionate blogger in the field of art, design, and creativity since 2011. Successful completion of a degree in web design as part of a university study (2008). Further development of creativity techniques through courses in free drawing, expressive painting, and theatre/acting. Profound knowledge of the art market through years of journalistic research and numerous collaborations with actors/institutions from art and culture.

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