Ruscha: diggin' into pop

// November 6th, 2009 // b-scene // b-uncut

Ed Ruscha is currently exhibiting 60 years of work in the very pompous Hayward Gallery – 78 works on canvas – many of which have never been seen before in the UK. Billboards, flashy slogans, stylish facades, typography, enigmas, the Californian artist surely knows how to entertain us in a Michael Mooreish kind of way. With a lot of humor and self-derision.

What makes this exhibition interesting?

Watching the evolution of modern American culture pictured by a brilliant non-conventional artist mixing Pop Art, Dadaism and Surrealism definitely made our day – and who doesn’t appreciate a fine wit?

Even his pieces without the written word are so powerful and simple that they somehow manage to engage you in conversation. The type that challenges your repartee and triggers mind games. The type we like! We almost felt like answering back by challenging him to a “battle of wits” or at least to a game of scrabble.

But, Ed Ruscha’s brilliance lies in his sharp observance of life voiced through read between-the-lines and charged word paintings that speak to us with a heavy western accent about what is beautiful, funny, optimistic, ironic and true. If Voltaire was to paint his critique on 18th century french society, it would most probably be a Standard Station (1966), Annie (1962) or Trademark with Eight Spotlights (1962). Rousha paints Hollywood as a mirror of late 20th century America with the smarts, satire and arrogance of a french revolutionary philosopher. The playful way Ruscha captures his personal experience in cool words or phrases appropriated from his daily life makes his art acoustic, visual and conceptual.

Something that only “enlightened” artists master.