Ed Ruscha - 20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale New York Wednesday, May 17, 2017 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles
    Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1996

  • Exhibited

    Los Angeles, Gagosian Gallery, Ed Ruscha: Vowels - Paintings on Book Covers, September 11 - 28, 1996

  • 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.

    View More Works

190

Three Works: (i) Vowel #54 (E); (ii) Vowel #86 (Y); (iii) Vowel #59 (E)

(i) signed, numbered and dated "#54 AUGUST 5, 1996 Ed Ruscha '96" on the first page
(ii) signed, numbered and dated "#86 AUG. 30, 1996 Ed Ruscha 1996" on the first page
(iii) signed, numbered and dated "#59 AUG. 6, 1996 Ed Ruscha 1996" on the first page

acrylic on book cover, in 3 parts
each 7 1/4 x 5 1/2 in. (18.4 x 14 cm.)
Executed in 1996.

Estimate
$40,000 - 60,000 

Sold for $50,000

Contact Specialist
John McCord
Head of Day Sale
New York
+1 212 940 1261

20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale

New York Auction 17 May 2017