Ed Ruscha at the de Young
“The Great American West” in San Francisco
Above: Standard Station, Amarillo, Texas (1963), by Ed Ruscha. Oil on canvas, 64.875 x 121.75 inches. Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire. © Ed Ruscha. Home page/Art page: The End (1991), by Ed Ruscha. Lithograph, 26.1875 x 36.8125 inches. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. © Ed Ruscha.
America’s Future (1979), by Ed Ruscha. Oil on canvas, 22 x 159 inches. Collection of Levi Strauss & Co., San Francisco. © Ed Ruscha. 
Gas (1962), by Ed Ruscha. Lithograph, 20 x 15 inches. Published by the artist. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. © Ed Ruscha. 
Standard Station, Amarillo, Texas (1962), by Ed Ruscha. Gelatin silver print, 4.9375 x 5.0625 inches. Whitney Museum of American Art. 
Standard Station (1966), by Ed Ruscha. Color screenprint, 25.625 x 40 inches. Published by Audrey Sabol, Villanova, Pennsylvania. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. © Ed Ruscha. 
Desert Gravure (2006), by Ed Ruscha. Photogravure, 21.25 x 24.75 inches. Published by Crown Point Press, San Francisco. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. © Ed Ruscha. 
Your Space Gravure (2006), by Ed Ruscha. Photogravure with color aquatint and hard-ground etching, printed chine collé, 29.75 x 25 inches. Published by Crown Point Press, San Francisco. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. © Ed Ruscha. 
The Fourteen Hundred (1965), by Ed Ruscha, from the series Twentyfive Apartments (2003). Gelatin silver print, 10 x 8 inches. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. © Ed Ruscha. 
Schwab’s Pharmacy (1976), by Ed Ruscha, from the series The Sunset Strip (1995). Gelatin silver print from altered negative, 20 x 30 inches. Published by Patrick Painter Editions, Vancouver and Hong Kong. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. © Ed Ruscha. 
Pool #7 (1968), by Ed Ruscha, from the series Pools (1997). Chromogenic print, 20 x 20 inches. Published by Patrick Painter Editions, Vancouver and Hong Kong. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. © Ed Ruscha. 
Dodger Stadium, 1000 Elysian Park Ave. (1967), by Ed Ruscha, from the series Parking Lots (1999). Gelatin silver print, 20 x 16 inches. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. © Ed Ruscha. 
Lockheed Air Terminal, 2627 N. Hollywood Way, Burbank (1967), by Ed Ruscha, from the series Parking Lots (1999). Gelatin silver print, 20 x 16 inches. Published by Patrick Painter Editions, Vancouver and Hong Kong. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. © Ed Ruscha. 
Coyote (1989), by Ed Ruscha. Lithograph, 36 x 27 inches. Published by the artist. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. © Ed Ruscha. 
Teepees, by Ed Ruscha, from the portfolio Cameo Cuts (1992). Color lithograph, 12 x 12 inches. Published by Edition Julie Sylvester, New York. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. © Ed Ruscha. 
Pepto-Caviar Hollywood (1970), by Ed Ruscha. Color screenprint, 15 x 42.5 inches. Published by Cirrus Editions, Los Angeles. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. © Ed Ruscha. 
Hollywood (1968), by Ed Ruscha. Color screenprint, 17.5 x 44.4375 inches. Published by the artist. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. © Ed Ruscha. 
Sunset—Gardner Cross (1998–99), by Ed Ruscha. Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 112 inches. The Broad Art Foundation, Los Angeles. © Ed Ruscha. 
A Particular Kind of Heaven (1983), by Ed Ruscha. Oil on canvas, 90 x 136.5 inches. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. © Ed Ruscha. 
Pick, Pan, Shovel (1980), by Ed Ruscha. Color lithograph, 22.1875 x 30.0625 in. Published by Graphic Arts Council, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. © Ed Ruscha. 
Noose Around Your Neck, by Ed Ruscha, from the series Country Cityscapes (2001). Color photogravure with screenprint, 18 x 14 in. Published by Graphicstudio, University of South Florida, Tampa. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. © Ed Ruscha. 
Rodeo (1969), by Ed Ruscha. Color lithograph, 17 x 24 inches. Published by Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Los Angeles. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. © Ed Ruscha. 
Adios (1969), by Ed Ruscha. Color lithograph, 9.25 x 22 inches. Published by Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Los Angeles. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. © Ed Ruscha. 
Busted Glass (2014), by Ed Ruscha. Dry pigment and acrylic on paper, 15 x 22.375 inches. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. © Ed Ruscha. 
Dead End 2, by Ed Ruscha, from the series Rusty Signs (2014). Mixografia print on handmade paper, 24 x 24 inches. Published by Mixografia Workshop, Los Angeles. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. © Ed Ruscha. 
The End (1991), by Ed Ruscha. Lithograph, 26.1875 x 36.8125 inches. Published by the artist. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. © Ed Ruscha. 
The Absolute End (1982), by Ed Ruscha. Dry pigment on paper, 23 x 29 inches. Robert A. Rowan Collection. © Ed Ruscha.
The West is such an integral part of our national myth, it’s not surprising that it has played such an formative role in the art of Ed Ruscha, the ur-American artist of our times. Born in Oklahoma, Ruscha left home at the age of 18, in 1956, to come to Los Angeles in the hopes of going to art school. On the way he more or less followed the path of the iconic Route 66 highway, and the mid-century sights that he witnessed—gas stations, billboards and vast stretches of roadway flecked with telephone poles—have influenced his imagery ever since.
The show last summer and fall at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, “Ed Ruscha and the Great American West,” featured 99 works from throughout his career that evoke the West in “symbolic, evocative and ironic renditions.” Today, at the age of 78, Ruscha continues to work out of his studio in the California desert, and the exhibit included pieces completed as recently as 2015. Courtesy of the de Young, PROVOKR here presents a generous sampling of his remarkable art.
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