Ruscha’s Photographs

Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills

Neutra cites Wright on God shaking loose all the bits and pieces and architectural fragments into California from the New England corner. Duchamp had the ecumenical outlook. Pure criticism sees the essence and not its theory. Artists aren’t opinionated, they’re different individuals. Boulez can conduct anything, but he prefers to conduct works that he finds congenial.

Almost all of these photographs are black and white. Products (1961, printed 2003) is a gallery of concentrated forces, talismans and repositories: a box of Sun-Maid Raisins, a box of Oxydol, etc.

The hand and the book. Gasoline stations. Apartment buildings.Venice (Italy) and Manhattan (from the Staten Island Ferry). A rooster, a potato, a car. Neon signs.

Ed Ruscha Oxydol Gelatin silver print 19 3/8 x 16" (framed) Products Series 1961 (printed 2003)

Ed Ruscha Pool Ektacolor photograph 15 7/8 x 17 7/8" Pools Series 1968 (printed 1997)

Aerial photographs are suggestive; Ruscha’s Parking Lots are descriptive. Rooftop views, vacant lots.

The Pools (1968, printed 1997) address color photography with a magnitude made somewhat problematical by the narrow corridor in which some of them are displayed.

Sunset Strip, registration markings. Bow Tie repeats the color image of the desert as a mirrored Rorschach with emblematic additions (rivet, screwhead, teardrop). Books has the mystery.

 

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