Edward Ruscha, quintessential American artist and pioneer of Pop Art.
Edward Ruscha established his reputation in the late 1950s and early ‘60s with his unique, bold works that combined images and text to great effect, and which were strongly influenced by commercial advertising. Embodying many quintessential aspects of American culture with a deadpan approach to mass consumerism, Ruscha quickly became a leading force in the Pop Art movement, and he is still widely viewed as one of the most important artists of our time.
The market in Edward Ruscha’s work reflects his popularity; his most expensive painting sold for £35.8 million in 2019, and his prints (which account for 68% of his work sold at auction) regularly fetch between £1,000 and £5,000, with a significant number reaching £50,000 or even more.
Edward Ruscha’s work is, in many ways, shaped by his own experiences and surroundings. Therefore, when considering his art, it is useful to know some things about the groundbreaking artist. Below is a list of six things you might not have known about Edward Ruscha.
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He Worked In Advertising
The influence of commercial advertising and the culture of mass consumerism are clear to see in the bold, flat colours and clean lines of most of Edward Ruscha’s work. This, in part, is due to the time the artist spent working in the advertising sector. After graduating from art school in Los Angeles, Ruscha took a job at the Carson Roberts advertising agency designing layouts, and he subsequently did something similar for Artforum magazine (though he used the pseudonym ‘Eddie Russia’).
These experiences undoubtedly shaped Ruscha’s subject matter, as well as the colours, layouts, and typefaces that he used in his artwork. Moreover, prints such as Double Standard and Hollowood (1968) were partly made with the ‘split fountain’ method of mixing differently-coloured inks, a technique which had previously been mostly reserved for commercial printing rather than fine art prints.
Double Standard (1968)
His Most Expensive Print Sold For Nearly £380,000
Ruscha’s Standard Station prints were made in the 1960s using a variety of different colours, and all of the images are extremely sought after in today’s market. Based on the photographs in Ruscha’s first artist’s book, Twentysix Gasoline Stations, published in 1963, the prints give emblematic status to an otherwise ordinary, functional construction in the American landscape. The most expensive Standard Station print was made in 1966, and it was sold by Christie’s in October 2022 for £379,581.
Standard Station sold by Christie’s in 2022
He Remarried His Ex-Wife
Ruscha met Danica Knego (known as Danna) in 1965, and they were married two years later in 1967. By 1972, however, they’d separated, and by 1978, they were divorced. Edward Ruscha dated a number of high-profile actresses and models over the next few years, but in 1987, he remarried his ex-wife Danna. The couple remain together to this day, living in California, where Ruscha, now in his mid-eighties, is still producing artwork.
He Pioneered Artist’s Books
Though Ruscha is best-known for his paintings and prints, he is also a skilled photographer, with many of these images ending up in his artist’s books. These books proved to be extraordinarily influential on Ruscha himself (often providing inspiration for his paintings and prints, such as Standard Station and Double Standard), but also subsequent generations of artists, including Bruce Nauman and Elisabeth Tonnard. Ruscha himself called his books “the most powerful thing I’ve done”, describing them as “like a wolf in sheep’s clothing”, and stating they were “really the red meat of my work.”
Edward Ruscha Art Books
He Is Strongly Influenced By California
Ruscha was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and his family subsequently moved to Oklahoma City before the young Ruscha chose to go and study art in Los Angeles. The move to California had a profound effect on him; in his own words, California “just threw romance in my face”, and the “swanky mentality” of the sunshine state enthralled him immediately. The artist saw an “attractive future” there, and it’s where he’s stayed ever since.
It isn’t hard to see the indelible mark California (and Los Angeles in particular) has left on Ruscha; the diverse landscapes of the state have provided spectacular backdrops for his art, and the thriving advertising and movie industries he is surrounded by have infiltrated many aspects of his work, as is made clear in prints such as Hollywood (1968 and 1969).
A Trip To Europe Inspired His Style
In 1961, Edward Ruscha spent several months travelling extensively through Europe, and the experience helped hone the style he would later become famous for. Though he visited numerous museums on the trip, Ruscha found he was more interested in painting local signs and aspects of daily life.
But, after about six months, the artist has said he “couldn’t wait to get back” to the US, saying that “I felt like the real meat of exposure to culture depended on being in America.” The enthusiasm with which he threw himself into creating art upon his return home, and the speed with which he found fame, simply confirmed what the artist knew: “I could see I was just born for the job, born to watch paint dry.”
