Flies, 1972

Edward Ruscha is an American artist who belongs to the Pop Art movement that emerged from the 1960s. Based in Los Angeles, his work is a West Coast expression of the genre which is mainly seen as a New York movement epitomized by Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. Ed Ruscha works in the media of painting, collage, printmaking, photography and drawing. In 1956 Ruscha moved from Omaha Nebraska to Los Angeles to study art. Rebelling against the Abstract Expressionist movement of the times, Ed Ruscha drew inspiration from strongly graphic works such as Jasper John's "Target With Four Faces" (1958). Ed Ruscha cites his main influences as popular culture, cartoons and comic strips. His iconic 1962 work 'OOF' which features the word in gold lettering against a cobalt blue background could be taken straight out of the panel of a comic book. This was the first of many works featuring text, which have evolved over the years to feature typography over images. Known as 'word paintings' Ruscha likens the background images to stage settings for the words in the foreground, creating a tension between the two elements. Ed Ruscha’s exploration of landscapes began in 1962 with first art book "Twenty-six Gasoline Stations". It featured photographs of gas stations along Route 66 referencing the Beat Generation and reminiscent of Edward Hopper's 'Gas Station'. Experimenting in surrealism in the mid 1960s Ruscha's works such 'Strange Catch for a Fresh Water Fish' show objects floating in minimal spaces, often featuring graphite pencils. In the 1980s Ed Ruscha merged his love of popular culture and Southern Californian landscapes with "Hollywood" in which he repositions iconic Hollywood sign on the crest of the Santa Monica Mountains ridge against a torrid red horizon. In 2011 his exhibition "Psycho Spaghetti Western" featured desolate landscapes littered with mattresses, junk, tires and other discarded domestic items on diagonal planes. (Artist website)