Provenance
Gagosian Gallery, New York
McCabe Fine Art
Catalogue Essay
'Some [words] are found, ready-made, some are dreams, some come from newspapers. They are finished by blind faith. No matter if I've seen it on television or read it in the newspaper, my mind seems to wrap itself around that thing until it's done.' (Ed Ruscha in J. Sterbak "Premeditated: An Interview with Ed Ruscha," Real Life Magazine, Summer 1985)

Ed Ruscha’s name has become synonymous with the Southern Californian Pop Art scene. As one of the key proponents of an aesthetic centred on visual signs and textual slogans, Ruscha grew to fame in the late 1950s by aligning himself with the artistic preoccupations of Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. He had moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1950s, and immediately found his artistic purpose within its streets and culture. Capitalising on the bombardment of images in the fast-paced city celebrated as the nation’s centre of the film and television industry, Ruscha built his career by reflecting the very culture he was dwelling in. Cinematic panoramic sunsets and dramatic horizons juxtapose against stencilled tag lines creating paintings that resemble adverts or film posters.

Pneumatic Muscles Hydraulic Smiles (2010) embodies Ruscha’s mature style. Seemingly unrelated words dominate the surface of the painting in a manner akin to the credits appearing over a film still at the movies. The cinematic quality is heightened by the imposing characters of the words displayed. Muscles and Smiles are perhaps a further nod to the Hollywood genre where the macho leading man and beautiful leading lady dominate film roles. However, the inclusion of industrial-specific terms such as Pneumatic and Hydraulic gives way to intrinsic questions about the work’s meaning. How can smiles be hydraulic? Pneumatic derives from power supplied through compressed air – could Ruscha be commenting on the superficiality of Hollywood with its muscular protagonists or even how fake the entire genre is? Alternatively, perhaps this is a remark on California in general with its burgeoning cosmetic surgery propagating the idea that the image one projects is more important than the truth. As times change, the meaning of this painting develops and evolves. Pneumatic Muscles Hydraulic Smiles lies open to interpretation; in fact, it solely relies on the viewer to formulate a coherent meaning from the puzzle of words and images supplied by the artist and it is precisely this that continues to add to its appeal.

Majestic concepts are juxtaposed with banal slogans just as beautiful landscapes are intersected by rude taglines in many of Ruscha’s works. Through playful palindromes the artist gives voice to the ideas that preoccupy him but equally offers a means for viewers to express their own thoughts. As is typical of Ruscha’s most eloquent works, the power of Pneumatic Muscles Hydraulic Smiles lies in its ability to capture the beholder on both an aesthetic and intellectual level.
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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Property from the Estate of Dr. Fredric S. Brandt, Miami

Ο◆14

Ed Ruscha

Pneumatic Muscles Hydraulic Smiles

2010
acrylic on canvas
66.5 x 81.5 cm (26 1/8 x 32 1/8 in.)
Signed and dated 'Ed Ruscha 2010' on the reverse. This work is numbered P.2010. 02 on the studio label on the reverse.

Estimate
£300,000 - 500,000 ‡

Sold for £386,500

Contact Specialist
Peter Sumner
Head of Contemporary Art, London
psumner@phillips.com
+44 207 318 4063

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

London 14 October 2015 7pm

1
Mark Grotjahn
Untitled (Blue Eyes Brown Hanging Perforated Mark M3.d)
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ‡
Sold for £116,500
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2
Rosemarie Trockel
Study for Old Friend
Estimate £150,000 - 250,000 ‡♠
Sold for £200,500
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3
Peter Doig
Bird House
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡♠
Sold for £242,500
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4
Richard Prince
Untitled (Cowboy)
Estimate £500,000 - 700,000 ‡
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5
Mark Grotjahn
Untitled (Three-Tiered Perspective)
Estimate £700,000 - 1,000,000 ‡
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6
Christopher Wool
Untitled
Estimate £1,500,000 - 2,500,000 ‡
Sold for £2,266,500
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7
Christopher Wool
Untitled (Jazz death)
Estimate £1,200,000 - 1,800,000 ‡
Sold for £1,314,500
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8
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate £700,000 - 1,000,000 ‡♠
Sold for £1,930,500
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9
Yoshitomo Nara
Missing in Action
Estimate £700,000 - 1,000,000 ‡
Sold for £1,986,500
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10
Anish Kapoor
Untitled
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000 ‡♠
Sold for £458,500
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11
Keith Haring
Untitled
Estimate £150,000 - 250,000 ‡
Sold for £218,500
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12
Keith Haring
Untitled (Head Stand)
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000 ‡
Sold for £482,500
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13
John Baldessari
Two Dogs and Two Aliens
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡
Sold for £266,500
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14
Ed Ruscha
Pneumatic Muscles Hydraulic Smiles
Estimate £300,000 - 500,000 ‡
Sold for £386,500
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15
George Condo
Stranger on a Plane
Estimate £150,000 - 250,000 ‡
Sold for £194,500
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16
Albert Oehlen
Omegasachen-35
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ‡♠
Sold for £302,500
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17
Damien Hirst
Aminobenzoyl Hydrazide
Estimate £300,000 - 500,000 ‡♠
Sold for £362,500
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18
Alighiero Boetti
Alternandosi e Dividendosi
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ‡♠
Sold for £302,500
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19
Lucio Fontana
Concetto Spaziale, Attese
Estimate £1,200,000 - 1,800,000 ♠
Sold for £1,314,500
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20
Cy Twombly
Untitled
Estimate £8,000,000 - 12,000,000 ‡
Sold for £7,922,500
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21
Mark Bradford
Constitution IV
Estimate £2,000,000 - 3,000,000 ‡
Sold for £3,778,500
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22
Tauba Auerbach
Untitled (Fold)
Estimate £1,200,000 - 1,800,000 ‡
Sold for £1,426,500
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23
Danh Vo
VJ Star
Estimate £500,000 - 700,000 ‡♠
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24
Richard Prince
Untitled (Couples)
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ‡
Sold for £152,500
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25
Urs Fischer
Horse Fraud
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000 ‡
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26
Cory Arcangel
Photoshop CS: 110 by 72 inches, 300 DPI, RGB, square pixels, default gradient "Russell's Rainbow" (turn transparency off), mousedown y=25300 x=17600, mouse up y=4300 x=17600
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000
Sold for £158,500
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27
Yayoi Kusama
Infinity-Nets (OPARHJ)
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ‡
Sold for £530,500
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28
Sterling Ruby
SP60
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Sold for £482,500
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29
Josef Albers
Homage to the Square: Wide Sight (study)
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ‡
Sold for £338,500
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30
Neo Rauch
Die Lage
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡♠
Sold for £866,500
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31
Anselm Kiefer
The Secret Life of Plants
Estimate £300,000 - 500,000 ‡♠
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32
Anselm Kiefer
Paete non Dolet
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡♠
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33
Antony Gormley
Domain XV
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ‡♠
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34
This lot is no longer available.
35
Jonas Wood
D.J.
Estimate £50,000 - 70,000
Sold for £62,500
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36
Richard Prince
Untitled (portrait)
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ‡
Sold for £98,500
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37
KAWS
Snoopy: Red Baron
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ‡
Sold for £128,500
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Contemporary Art Evening Sale

London 14 October 2015 7pm

Create your first list.

Provenance

Catalogue Essay

Artist Biography

Ed Ruscha

Ο◆14

Ed Ruscha

Pneumatic Muscles Hydraulic Smiles

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

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