Provenance

Don Francis, California; James Corcoran Gallery, Los Angeles; Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles; Spark Gallery, Tokyo; Galerie Vedovi, Brussels; Edward Tyler Nahem, New York; Sprüth Magers Lee, London; Monika Sprüth Philomene Magers, Munich
Exhibited

New York, Edward Tyler Nahem, Ed Ruscha: Selected Works, May 6 - June 30, 2005
Catalogue Essay
This work will be included in a forthcoming volume of Edward Ruscha: Catalogue Raisonné of the Works on Paper.

Ed Ruscha has established his formidable career on playful adventures in language. His work bridges graphic design, fine art and lingual experimentation with the sensibility of American folklore recreated through painting and photography. A resident of Los Angeles since 1956, Ruscha’s investigations into the Californian metropolis are also present in his work: text redefines mountains and pools, and assigns an identity to anonymous icons of the American landscape. Similarly, the present lot presents an image of an interior space marked by the slanted shadow of a setting sun, ironically labeled with a word that invokes travel, movement, and open outdoor spaces. To Ruscha, words intrinsically carry personal interpretations as an extension of the viewer’s individual experience.
"When I began painting, all my paintings were of words which were guttural utterances like Smash, Boss, Eat. Those words were like flowers in a vase; I just happened to paint words like someone else painted flowers. It wasn’t until later that I was interested in combinations of words and making thoughts, sentences, and things like that," (E. Ruscha, Leave Any Information at the Signal: Writings, Interviews, Bits, Pages, Cambridge, 2002, p. 264).
Artist Biography
Ed Ruscha
American • 1937
Quintessentially 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.
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17

Ed Ruscha

Atlas

1983

Dry pigment on paper.
22 1/2 x 30 in. (56.8 x 76 cm).

Signed and dated “Ed Ruscha 1983” lower right.

Estimate
$80,000 - 120,000

Sold for $86,500

Contemporary Art Part I

12 Nov 2009
New York

1
Kelley Walker and Wade Guyton
Untitled (from the series Guyton \ Walker: Empire Strikes Back)
Estimate $20,000 - 30,000
Sold for $74,500
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2
Dash Snow
Polaroid Wall
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $50,000
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3
Mark Handforth
American Tristar
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
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4
Robert Longo
Untitled (Damien)
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
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5
Olafur Eliasson
1m³ light
Estimate $300,000 - 500,000
Sold for $362,500
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6
Felix Gonzalez-Torres
"Untitled"
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $542,500
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7
Jeff Koons
Ice Bucket
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $230,500
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8
Richard Prince
Untitled (four women with their backs to the camera)
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
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9
Yayoi Kusama
Infinity Nets (T.W.A.)
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $842,500
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10
Gilbert & George
Spell of Sweating
Estimate $180,000 - 250,000
Sold for $206,500
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11
Larry Bell
Untitled
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
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12
Richard Artschwager
Untitled
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $338,500
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13
This lot is no longer available.
14
Ed Ruscha
Mean As Hell
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $590,500
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15
John McCracken
Speak
Estimate $90,000 - 120,000
Sold for $110,500
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16
Andy Warhol
Brillo Soap Pads Box
Estimate $700,000 - 900,000
Sold for $842,500
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17
Ed Ruscha
Atlas
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $86,500
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18
Andy Warhol
Diamond Dust Shoes
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $506,500
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19
James Rosenquist
Wild West World
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $242,500
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20
Tim Noble and Sue Webster
Puny Undernourished Kid & Girlfriend From Hell
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
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21
This lot is no longer available.
22
Anselm Reyle
Sonnenuntergang am Genfer See (Sunset on Lake Geneva)
Estimate $80,000 - 100,000
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23
Keith Tyson
Nature Painting
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $60,000
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24
Olafur Eliasson
Moonlight
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $110,500
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25
Jack Goldstein
Untitled
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $104,500
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26
Yoshitomo Nara
Black Hole Cosmic Heads
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
Sold for $134,500
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27
George Condo
Mental States (Hiding and Finding)
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $290,500
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28
Banksy
Insane Clown
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $386,500
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29
Albert Oehlen
Untitled
Estimate $150,000 - 250,000
Sold for $194,500
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30
Sherrie Levine
Untitled (Lead Knots: 7)
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $134,500
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31
Tony Cragg
Paysage avec Lac (Landscape with Lake)
Estimate $90,000 - 120,000
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32
Fred Sandback
Untitled (Leaning Vertical Construction)
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
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33
Dan Walsh
Untitled
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $37,500
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34
Kara Walker
The Humane Acquisition of Chitlins
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $86,500
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35
Katja Strunz
Untitled
Estimate $20,000 - 30,000
Sold for $27,500
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36
This lot is no longer available.
37
David LaChapelle
Leonardo DiCaprio: Nostalgic Styling
Estimate $25,000 - 35,000
Sold for $31,250
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38
Tracey Emin
Her soft lips touched mine and every thing became hard
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $86,500
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39
Jules de Balincourt
Ambitious New Plans
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $116,500
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40
Carroll Dunham
Another Island
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $104,500
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41
Hernan Bas
The Lonely Martian
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $98,500
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42
Feng Zhengjie
China 2005 No. 11
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $68,500
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Contemporary Art Part I

12 Nov 2009 New York

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Provenance

Exhibited

Catalogue Essay

Artist Biography

Ed Ruscha

17

Ed Ruscha

Atlas

Contemporary Art Part I

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12 Nov 2009
New York