Editing Edward Ruscha (section)

===Southern California===
[[File:RuschaGasolineStations.jpg|thumb|240px|''Twentysix Gasoline Stations'', 1963, by Ruscha]]
Although Ruscha denies this in interviews, the vernacular of [[Los Angeles]] and [[Southern California]] landscapes contributes to the themes and styles central to much of Ruscha's paintings, drawings, and books. Examples of this include the publication ''Every Building on the Sunset Strip'' (1966), a book of continuous photographs of a two and one half mile stretch of the 24 mile [[boulevard]].<ref>Jaleh Manor 'Ed Ruscha's One-Way Street'. In ''October'', Winter 2005, No. 111, Pages 127-142 (doi:10.1162/0162287053148139) October Magazine, Ltd. and Massachusetts Institute of Technology</ref> In 1973, following the model of ''Every Building on the Sunset Strip'', he photographed the entire length of [[Hollywood Boulevard]] with a motorized camera.<ref>[http://www.steidlville.com/books/124-THEN-NOW.html THEN & NOW by Ed Ruscha] Steidl Publishing, Göttingen.</ref> Also, paintings like ''Standard Station'' (1966), ''Large Trademark'' (1962), and ''Hollywood'' (1982) exemplify Ruscha's kinship with the Southern California visual language. Two of these paintings, ''Standard'' and ''Large Trademark'' were emulated out of car parts in 2008 by Brazilian photographer [[Vik Muniz]] as a commentary on Los Angeles and its car culture.

His work is also strongly influenced by the Hollywood film industry: the mountain in his Mountain Series is a play on the [[Paramount Pictures]] logo;<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://gagosian.com/exhibitions/2019/ed-ruscha-eilshemius-and-me/|title=Ed Ruscha: Eilshemius & Me, Davies Street, London, June 18–August 2, 2019|date=2019-05-31|website=Gagosian|language=en|access-date=2020-03-10}}</ref> ''Large Trademark with Eight Spotlights'' (1962) depicts the [[20th Century Fox]] logo,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Large-Trademark-with-Eight-Spotlights|title=Large Trademark with Eight Spotlights {{!}} painting by Ruscha|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=2020-03-10}}</ref> while the dimensions of this work are reminiscent of a movie screen; in his painting ''The End'' (1991) these two words, which comprised the final shot in all black-and-white films, are surrounded by scratches and streaks reminiscent of damaged celluloid.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ruscha-the-final-end-ar00596|title='The Final End', Edward Ruscha, 1992|last=Tate|website=Tate|language=en-GB|access-date=2020-03-10}}</ref> Also, the proportions of the ''Hollywood'' print seems to mimic the [[Cinemascope]] screen (however, to make the word "Hollywood", Ruscha transposed the letters of the sign from their actual location on the slope of the [[Santa Monica Mountains]] to the crest of the ridge).

Ruscha completed ''Large Trademark with Eight Spotlights'' in 1961, one year after graduating from college. Among his first paintings (''SU'' (1958–1960), ''Sweetwater'' (1959)) this is the most widely known, and exemplifies Ruscha's interests in popular culture, word depictions, and commercial graphics that would continue to inform his work throughout his career. ''Large Trademark'' was quickly followed by ''Standard Station'' (1963) and ''Wonder Bread'' (1962). In ''Norm's, La Cienega, on Fire'' (1964), ''Burning Gas Station'' (1965–66), and ''Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Fire'' (1965–68), Ruscha brought flames into play.<ref>[http://www.modernamuseet.se/en/Stockholm/Exhibitions/2010/Ed-Ruscha/Fifty-Years-of-Painting/ Ed Ruscha: Fifty Years of Painting, May 29 - September 5, 2010] [[Moderna Museet]], Stockholm.</ref> In 1966, Ruscha reproduced ''Standard Station'' in a [[silkscreen]] print using a split-fountain printing technique, introducing a gradation of tone in the background of the print, with variations following in 1969 (''Mocha Standard'', ''Cheese Mold Standard with Olive'', and ''Double Standard'').<ref>[http://www.honorfraser.com/?s=past&eid=18&c=press Ed Ruscha: Standard Stations, March 1 — March 29, 2008] [[Honor Fraser]], Los Angeles.</ref>

In 1985, Ruscha begins a series of "City Lights" paintings, where grids of bright spots on dark grounds suggest aerial views of the city at night.<ref>[http://www.modernamuseet.se/en/Stockholm/Exhibitions/2010/Ed-Ruscha/Fifty-Years-of-Painting/ Ed Ruscha: Fifty Years of Painting, May 29 - September 5, 2010] [[Moderna Museet]], Stockholm.</ref> More recently, his "Metro Plots" series chart the various routes that transverse the city of Los Angeles by rendering schematized street maps and blow-ups of its neighborhood sections, such as in ''Alvarado to [[Doheny Drive|Doheny]]'' (1998).<ref>[http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/980-madison-1999-01-ed-ruscha/ Ed Ruscha: Metro Plots, January 27 - February 27, 1999] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110624040948/http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/980-madison-1999-01-ed-ruscha/ |date=June 24, 2011 }} [[Gagosian Gallery]], New York.</ref> The paintings are grey and vary in their degrees of light and dark, therefore appearing as they were done by pencil in the stippling technique.<ref>[http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ruscha-blvd-ave-st-ar00049 Ed Ruscha, ''BLVD.-AVE.-ST.'' (2006)] [[Tate]], London.</ref> A 2003 portfolio of prints called ''Los Francisco San Angeles'' shows street intersections from San Francisco and LA juxtaposed one over the other.<ref>Rachel Lyon, [http://www.crownpoint.com/artists/195/about-artist Ed Ruscha] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719085216/http://www.crownpoint.com/artists/195/about-artist |date=2011-07-19 }} Crown Point Press, San Francisco.</ref>