Although straightforward in appearance, these uniformly sized pastel drawings required much planning on the artist’s part. After affixing low-tack tape over penciled words, Ruscha used an X-Acto knife to cut out each letter form, producing a “reverse stencil" over which he worked his ground medium into the backdrop using rags, cotton puffs, and sponges, before finally peeling off the adhesive. Organized in even rows, the resulting phrases speak to the artist’s idiosyncratic and often humorous use of language.
ED RUSCHA / NOW THEN, September 10, 2023 – January 13, 2024
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Edward Ruscha
American, born 1937 254 works onlineOnce, when asked about the abundance of text in his work, Ed Ruscha explained, “I just happened to paint words like someone else paints flowers.
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Stencil
Produces an image or pattern by applying pigment to an intermediate object—usually a thin sheet of material such as paper, plastic, wood, or metal—with designed gaps that allow the pigment to reach the exposed portions of a surface below.
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