Feb 15, 2025 - Mar 2, 2025
Ed Ruscha
Baby Jet (28/40), 2023
Hard-ground etching
7.75 x 8.5 in
Courtesy of the artist
About Artist: At the start of his artistic career, Ed Ruscha called himself an "abstract artist ... who deals with subject matter." Abandoning academic connotations that came to be associated with Abstract Expressionism, he looked instead to tropes of advertising and brought words”as form, symbol, and material” to the forefront of painting. Working in diverse media with humor and wit, he oscillates between sign and substance, locating the sublime in landscapes both natural and artificial. In 1956, Ruscha moved from Oklahoma City to Los Angeles, where he attended the Chouinard Art Institute. After graduation, Ruscha began to work for ad agencies, honing his skills in schematic design and considering questions of scale, abstraction, and viewpoint, which became integral to his painting and photography. He produced his first artist's book, "Twenty six Gasoline Stations” a series of deadpan photographs the artist took while driving on Route 66 from Los Angeles to Oklahoma City in 1963. Ruscha since has gone on to create over a dozen artists books, including the 25-foot-long, accordion-folded "Every Building on the Sunset Strip" (1966) and his version of Kerouac's iconic "On the Road" (2009). Ruscha also paints trompe-l'oeil bound volumes and alters book spines and interiors with painted words: books in all forms pervade his investigations of language and the distribution of art and information. Ruscha's paintings of the 1960s explore the noise and the fluidity of language. With works such as "OOF (1962-63)” which presents the exclamation in yellow block letters on a blue ground, it is nearly impossible to look at the painting without verbalizing the visual. Ruscha continues to influence contemporary artists worldwide, his formal experimentations and clever use of the American vernacular evolving in form and meaning as technology and internet platforms alter the essence of human communication. He represented the United States at the 51st Venice Biennale (2005) with "Course of Empire", an installation of ten paintings. Inspired by nineteenth century American artist Thomas Cole's famous painting cycle of the same name, the work alludes to the pitfalls surrounding modernist visions of progress.
Shipping + Insurance
Artwork will not be made available for pick up or delivery unless or until the Museum receives in clear funds all amounts payable to it.
With notice to Museum, you may elect to pick up the Artwork from the Museum’s main address at 307 Cliff Drive beginning Monday, March 3rd . Please call 949 494-8971 or artauction@lagunaartmuseum.org to schedule pick up.
Artworks remaining at Museum after March 9th that have not been arranged for pick will be sent to Elite Art Enterprises, LLC in the Los Angeles area to assist with delivery, installation, crating, shipping, storage or any other needs you might have in regard to transportation of your newly acquired artworks. Fees for the above services are set and collected by Elite Art Enterprises, LLC.
You can also arrange to collect the work from them directly at the following address.
Elite Art Enterprises, LLC
6321 Chalet Drive
Commerce, CA 90040
O: (562) 319-8060
If you fail to make arrangements to retrieve artwork either by pick up or delivery after fifteen (15) business days of the Fall of the Hammer, the Museum will be entitled to exercise remedies available under the law.
Insurance: Once the hammer falls, the risk associated with the artwork is transferred to the buyer. Hence, the buyer is solely responsible for arranging insurance coverage for the artwork. The Museum does not provide transit insurance for artworks sold through auctions. If you request delivery of the artwork, the Museum will not be responsible for any loss or damage caused during transit.