Ed Ruscha - Evening & Day Editions London Wednesday, January 17, 2024 | Phillips

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  • “Found words are the most pure because they have nothing to do with you... I take things as I find them. A lot of these things come from the noise of everyday life.”
    —Ed Ruscha 

    As a euphemism embedded in American vernacular, "went out for cigarettes and never came back" was a fitting choice for Ed Ruscha, who frequently uses words and phrases to examine American culture and its complexities. Originating in the mid-20th century, the trope encapsulates the stereotypical scenario of a father or husband leaving the family abruptly, using a mundane item, often a pack of cigarettes, as a pretext for their permanent disappearance without explanation. Over time, this trope has evolved into a narrative device often used in films and television as a witty and succinct way to convey this painful yet common event, sometimes to comedic effect. Ruscha, acclaimed for his artworks that capture both the ordinary and iconic aspects of American culture, isolates this simple yet emotionally charged phrase, removing certain letters so that it reads as an imperfect, colloquial idiom.

     

    Ed Rusca working on Wen out for cigrets n never came back at The Lapis Press​​​, Culver City, California, 2017. Image: The Lapis Press

    Here cast in patinated bronze, the text "wen out for cigrets n never came back" emerges from a solid, ring-shaped base. Drawing a connection to the Western canon of art, the creation of this edition employs the lost wax process of bronze casting—a technique often associated with antiquity and bronze figure sculptures. The Serif typeface is presented in three-dimensional form, lifting the text from the constraints of a flat surface and enabling them to engage with the surrounding space. In Ruscha’s quintessential deadpan manner, these eight words straddle the boundaries between commercial and high art, exploring the interplay of text and the space it occupies. An important example of Ruscha’s exploration of sculpture, an iteration of Wen out for cigrets n never came back is currently on view in Ruscha’s landmark exhibition “Ed Ruscha / Now Then”, at the Museum of Modern Art until 13th January 2024.


    In 1956, at the age of 18, Ruscha set off on a 1,300-mile road trip from how hometown of Oklahoma City to Los Angeles, where he would soon enrol at the Chouinard Art Institute. While attending art school, he painted in the styles of Franz Kline and Willem de Kooning until he stumbled upon a reproduction of Jasper Johns's Target with Four Faces (1955). Struck by Johns's innovative use of ready-made images as foundations for abstraction, Ruscha began contemplating how to utilise text as a tool for investigating the nature of art-making. In addition, Ruscha was a paper boy in his youth and, after graduating, began his artistic career in advertising. Therefore, Ruscha was intimately acquainted with the commercial use of words in newspapers, comics, and magazines, and text became seamlessly infused into his artistic practice.
    “Taking things out of context is a useful tool to an artist. It’s the concept of taking something that’s not subject matter and making it subject matter.” – Ed RuschaThe malleability of words became a captivating subject for Ruscha, as it allowed him to position letters against diverse backdrops on various scales and mediums, pushing the boundaries of words' interaction with space. As one of America’s most influential and successful living artists, Ruscha is known for these iconic word-based artworks. This distinctive body of work – falling between the Pop and Conceptual art movements – comes together to challenge preconceived verbal and visual constructs, leaving an indelible mark on the evolution of contemporary art. In Wen out for cigrets n never came back, the isolation of this particular phrase not only underscores Ruscha's fascination with the aesthetic qualities of words, but is also an exploration of the cultural and emotional resonance embedded in everyday expressions.

     

     

    • Literature

      Christophe Cherix, Ed Ruscha / Now Then: A Retrospective, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2023, p. 325 (another example exhibited)

    • 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

54

Wen Out for Cigrets N Never Came Back

2017
Cast bronze with hand applied patina, with the accompanying colophon, contained in the original handmade wooden presentation box.
50.2 x 50.2 x 5.1 cm (19 3/4 x 19 3/4 x 2 in.)
box 61 x 61 x 12.5 cm (24 x 24 x 4 7/8 in.)

Incised with signature, date, and numbering 26/40 on the underside (there were also 8 artist's proofs), published by Lapis Press, Culver City, California.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
£60,000 - 80,000 Ω

Sold for £95,250

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Evening & Day Editions

London Auction 17 - 18 January 2024