America Whistles
30 1/16 x 22 7/16 inchesAmerica Whistles (Siri Engberg 84), 1975
paper: 30 1/16 x 22 7/16 inches
frame: 31 1/2 x 24 inches
edition of 200 plus 25 AP's, 25 HC's
signed and dated "Edward Ruscha 1975" in pencil lower right
numbered in pencil lower left
workshop chop mark lower left
workshop number reverse lower right "197c-ER75"
printer Cirrus Editions, Los Angeles
published by APC Editions, division of Chermayeff & Geismar Associates, Inc., New York (and underwritten by Mobil Oil Corporation)
Floated in a metal frame with UV plexiglass
Literature
Edward Ruscha: Editions 1959-1999. Catalogue Raisonne, Siri and Clive Phillpot Engberg, Walker Art Center, 1999, no. 84, another impression reproduced in color, pg 23.
Museum Collections
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
Additional Photos
Full Sheet
Detail
Signature & Date lower right
Edition number lower left
Ed Ruscha has been painting, drawing and printing words on paper, canvas and in lithographs since the early 1960s, the artist began with simple, single word-works, such as Comics, drawing inspiration from cartoon strips and other pop sources. Is he an author or a painter?
ED RUSCHA AMERICA WHISTLES
Ed Ruscha has been painting, drawing and printing words on paper, canvas and in lithographs since the early 1960s, the artist began with simple, single word-works, such as Comics, drawing inspiration from cartoon strips and other pop sources. Is he an author or a painter? He certainly works with words and has published twenty or so books, yet no one would take in one of well-know ‘word’ paintings in the same way as they might read a novel, a newspaper or a magazine.
Ed Ruscha’s name is synonymous with the Los Angeles Pop art movement of the early 1960s. His work, however, has an appeal and importance that transcends merely regional concerns and conventions. Ruscha’s five-decade exploration of the American vernacular in photographs, films, paintings, artist books and works on paper, reflects a singular vision and a wry statement about the evolution of culture, the urban environment and the vicissitudes of contemporary life. Perhaps most significant is his use of language, particularly his elevation of the written word to a primary and substantive subject for art. This singular aspect of his oeuvre has had far-reaching implications and inspired many subsequent generations of artists. Today, his influence is evident in the work of a broad range of artists, including Richard Prince, Kay Rosen and Wayne White, to name but a few.
In 1962 Ruscha’s work was included in the groundbreaking and historically important exhibition entitled "New Painting of Common Objects" at the Pasadena Art Museum along with other legendary Pop artists, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Robert Dowd, Phillip Hefferton, Joe Goode, Jim Dineand Wayne Thiebaud. Since his first major works on paper exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in 1972, Rushca has since gone on to exhibit at numerous museums and galleries including the Kunsthaus Zürich the Moderna Museet, Stockholm among others.
When asked what he would you say to young artists who ask you about the importance of drawing in their own work Ruscha exclaimed: "Drawing could be likened to thinking with a pencil. I sometimes think whistling is to drawing what a symphony is to painting. But a drawing can certainly be a noble finished product not to be taken as secondary to an oil-on-canvas or a piece of sculpture."
