Edward Ruscha was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1937. His photography, drawing, painting, and artist books record the shifting emblems of American life in the last half century. His deadpan representations of Hollywood logos, stylized gas stations, and archetypal landscapes distil the imagery of popular culture into a language of cinematic and typographical codes that are as accessible as they are profound. Ruscha’s wry choice of words and phrases, which feature heavily in his work, draw upon the moments of incidental ambiguity implicit in the interplay between the linguistic signifier and the concept signified.
Works by Ed Ruscha are found in major private and public collections, including the Whitney Museum, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.