Property from an Important European Collector
227
Ed Ruscha
What Say - Say What
- Estimate
- £5,000 - 7,000
£13,750
Lot Details
hardbound artist's book of blank pages, ink on the exposed edges of the book block
signed, titled and dated 'Ed Ruscha "WHAT SAY - SAY WHAT" 2004' on the front page
6 x 23.5 x 28.7 cm (2 3/8 x 9 1/4 x 11 1/4 in.)
Executed in 2004.
Specialist
Full-Cataloguing
Provenance
Ed Ruscha
American | 1937Quintessentially American, Ed Ruscha is an L.A.-based artist whose art, like California itself, is both geographically rooted and a metaphor for an American state of mind. Ruscha is a deft creator of photography, film, painting, drawing, prints and artist books, whose works are simultaneously unexpected and familiar, both ironic and sincere.
His most iconic works are at turns poetic and deadpan, epigrammatic text with nods to advertising copy, juxtaposed with imagery that is either cinematic and sublime or seemingly wry documentary. Whether the subject is his iconic Standard Gas Station or the Hollywood Sign, a parking lot or highway, his works are a distillation of American idealism, echoing the expansive Western landscape and optimism unique to postwar America.
Browse ArtistHis most iconic works are at turns poetic and deadpan, epigrammatic text with nods to advertising copy, juxtaposed with imagery that is either cinematic and sublime or seemingly wry documentary. Whether the subject is his iconic Standard Gas Station or the Hollywood Sign, a parking lot or highway, his works are a distillation of American idealism, echoing the expansive Western landscape and optimism unique to postwar America.