Recently, I visited NYC and, obviously, had to see what the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has to offer. Besides a wonderful gift shop, the MoMA showcases a ton of artists, both prominent and obscured. The 6th floor of the museum celebrates American artist Edward Ruscha.
Ruscha was born on December 16, 1937 in Omaha, Nebraska. Part of the pop art movement, he dabbles in photography, printmaking, and painting. Ruscha studied art at the Chouinard Art Institute (now the California Institute of Arts) and worked in the advertising industry as a sign painter and layout artist, greatly influencing his art style. His other influences include French artist Marcel Duchamp’s ‘readymade’ objects, pop artist Andy Warhol’s Cambell’s soup can paintings, and the city of Los Angeles, where he lived.
The artist gained popularity in the 60s with his paintings Standard Station (1966) and Large Trademark with Eight Spotlights (1962), which cartoonishly highlight the ever-expanding culture of mass consumerism.
However, he is most famous for his word paintings:
During Ruscha’s career, his fascination with typography led him to largely experiment with the intersection between language and art. His most recognizable works, like the ones shown above, feature single-syllable words, loudly magnified using oil paint.
“I just happened to paint words like someone else paints flowers”
“I like the idea of a word becoming a picture, almost leaving its body, then coming back and becoming a word again”
Afterwards, he began his ‘liquid word’ paintings, expanding to multi-syllabic words:
Later in the 80s, Ruscha began to develop his own font called ‘Boy Scout Utility Modern,’ which he unveils in works like Not a Bad World, Is It (1984) and Daily Planet (2003), mixing text and landscape.
My favorite of his paintings is Actual Size (1962), which depicts SPAM in the form of an advertisement. As a longtime lover and defender of SPAM, I was glad to see someone appreciated canned ham as much as I did. For those who don’t appreciate SPAM as I and Ruscha do, perhaps you should try SPAM fried rice or SPAM musubi (don’t knock it till you’ve tried it). If you look closely, the words “Actual Size” are penciled in the mini-SPAM’s rocket streak.
Ed Ruscha’s work is humorous, playful, and inventive. The artist experiments with unconventional subjects, as well as unconventional materials, from egg yolks to chocolate. In his recent work, such as Psycho Spaghetti Western #6 (2010-2011), he continues to subject his work around consumerism but in a more complex manner. Now 86, Ruscha continues to astound us.