The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of October 4, 2023

Bronson Tropics

1965

Edward Ruscha

(American, 1937-)

America, 20th century

Graphite powder and graphite wash, with point of brush and graphite wash

Support: Cream(1) wove paper

Sheet: 35.5 x 53.7 cm (14 x 21 1/8 in.); Image: 33 x 54.6 cm (13 x 21 1/2 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1998.114

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

Ruscha edited out window treatments and trees from his original photograph to make the building seem more streamlined.

Description

Edward Ruscha has lived and worked in Los Angeles since the 1950s. He developed an interest in commercial imagery early on, using words and advertising logos to structure his artworks. In particular, Ruscha often depicted the commercial architecture and car culture characteristic of California. This drawing relates to Some Los Angeles Apartments (1965), one of numerous photobooks that the artist self-published throughout the 1960s. For this project, Ruscha photographed unremarkable apartment buildings, highlighting their sameness through seriality. He revisited ten of the photographs as drawings, such as this one, in which he further simplified the building's structure, flattening and streamlining it through smoothly applied graphite powder.

Inscriptions

Inscription

signed, lower left, in graphite: Edward Ruscha 1965

Provenance
1965 - 1998
Edward Ruscha [1937-], Los Angeles, CA
1998
(Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1998-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
DeGrazia, Diane and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. Mentioned: pp. 280-281, 298; Reproduced: p. 281
Edward Ruscha (Ed-Werd Rew-Shay), Young Artist. Exh. Cat. Minneapolis: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1972. Mentioned and reproduced: no. 14
Graphic Works by Edward Ruscha. Exh. Cat. Auckland: Auckland City Art Gallery, 1978. Mentioned: p. 87, 122, no. 61; Reproduced: p. 87
Guacamole Airlines and Other Drawings by Edward Ruscha. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1980. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 20, no. 12
Livet, Anne. The Works of Edward Ruscha. Exh. Cat. San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1982 Mentioned: p. 176, no. 66; reproduced: p. 66, plate 28
Edward Ruscha: Words Without Thoughts Never to Heaven Go. Exh. Cat. Lake Worth, FL: Lannan Museum, 1988. Mentioned: p. 61, no. 24; Reproduced: p. 38
Marshall, Richard. Edward Ruscha: Los Angeles Apartments, 1965. Exh. Cat. New York: Whitney Museum, 1990. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 19.
Whitington, G. Luther. "Where the West Sinks Slowly into the Sun." Journal of Art (April 1991): 26-27. Reproduced: p. 27
Wakefield, Neville and Dave Hickey. Ed Ruscha: New Paintings and a Retrospective of Works on Paper. Exh. Cat. London: Anthony d'Offay, 1998. Reproduced: p. 27
Cleveland Museum of Art, “Cleveland Acquires Major New Sculpture, Rare Chinese Prints, Contemporary Prints, Drawings & Photographs,” October 30, 1998, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
Perrone, Jeff. "Ed Ruscha's Illuminated Manuscripts." Parkett 55 (1999): 26-39. Reproduced: p. 29
Schwartz, Alexandra, ed. Leave Any Information at the Signal: Writings, Interviews, Bits, Pages. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002. Reproduced: p. 222
Rowell, Margit, and Cornelia H. Butler. Cotton Puffs, Q-Tips, Smoke and Mirrors: The Drawings of Ed Ruscha. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 2004. Mentioned and reproduced: no. 32
Wolf, Sylvia. Ed Ruscha and Photography. Exh. Cat. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 2004. Mentioned: p. 285, no. 269; Reproduced: p. 233
Auping, Michael. Ed Ruscha: Road Tested. Exh. Cat. Fort Worth: Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, 2011. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 67
Müller, Christian. Ed Ruscha: Los Angeles Apartments. Exh. Cat. Basel: Kunstmuseum Basel, Kupferstichkabinett, 2013. Mentioned: pp. 67-68, 138-142, 160, no. 71; Reproduced: p. 142
Exhibition history

Cleveland Museum of Art, Main Gallery Rotation (Gallery 229) (April 14 - July 28, 2014).

Ed Ruscha: New Paintings and a Retrospective of Works on Paper. Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London (1998).

Edward Ruscha Los Angeles Apartments 1965. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (July 27 - October 14, 1990).

The Works of Ed Ruscha. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (March 25 - May 23, 1982); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (July 8 - September 5, 1982); Vancouver Art Gallery (October 4 - November 28, 1982); San Antonio Museum of Art (December 27, 1982 - February 20, 1983); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (March 17 - May 15, 1983).

Graphic Works by Edward Ruscha. Auckland City Art Gallery, New Zealand (August - October 1978).

Ed Ruscha. Stedelijk Museum, Prentenkabinet, Amsterdam (March 26 - May 9, 1976).

Edward Ruscha (Ed-Werd Rew-Shay), Young Artist. Minneapolis Institute of Arts (April 18 - May 28, 1972).

Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).

Cotton Puffs, Q-Tips, Smoke and Mirrors: The Drawings of Ed Ruscha. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (organizer) (June 24-September 26, 2004).

Ed Ruscha: Road Tested. Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX (organizer) (January 23-April 17, 2011).

Ed Ruscha - Los Angeles Apartments. Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel, Switzerland (organizer) (June 8-September 29, 2013).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1998.114