Beschreibung:

Ed Ruscha Anchor Stuck in Sand 1990 acrylic on canvas 60 1/4 x 112 1/4 in. (153 x 285.1 cm) Signed and dated “Ed Ruscha, 1990” on the reverse. Further signed, titled, and dated “Ed Ruscha, Anchor Stuck in Sand, 1990” on the stretcher.
Provenance James Corcoran Gallery, Santa Monica The Robert A. Rowan Collection, Los Angeles Sale: Sotheby’s, New York, Contemporary Art Part II, November 15, 2000, lot 275 Acquired at the above sale by the present owner Exhibited Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA), Ed Ruscha December 9, 1990 – February 24, 1991 Pasadena, Art Center, College of Design, Selections from the Robert A. Rowan Trust Collection, May 21 – July 9, 1995 Literature R. Dean and L. Turvey, Edward Ruscha: Catalogue Raisonné of The Paintings, Volume Four: 1988-1992, New York, Gagosian Gallery, 2009, no. P1990.44, pp. 308-309 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay “Most of the films I saw at that time were black and white. I’ve got a vivid memory of what they looked like on a big screen and the silvery feeling that I got from them; I’m sure it had everything to do with my thoughts about painting...” ED RUSCHA A singular voice distilling America’s vast visual lexicon, Ed Ruscha’s presence as a stalwart of contemporary art has cemented his place as one of the most important artists of his generation. Producing an oeuvre as prolific as it is profound; Ruscha’s work has ranged from his wry observations of consumer culture to his breathtaking paintings of the American landscape. His signature word and letter paintings are portrayed in myriad tones and styles, against backdrops both simple and stunningly complex. Ruscha has, on occasion, delved into the depths of pictorial language alone, expressing a cinematic sensibility, as demonstrated in this painting from 1990, Anchor Stuck in Sand. In an ongoing exploration of perspective and cinema, the artist has distilled an extension of this development into a body of works indebted to the language of film. Ruscha’s ode to Hollywood pictures range from the production of iconic Hollywood hills signs to silhouettes of adventurebound pirate ships, stoic teepees, and hushed scenes of solemn-looking homes reminiscent of film noir. In addition—and in terms of its subjective content—the present lot is a counterpoint to many of Ruscha’s contemporaneous works. Prior to the late 1980s, Ruscha had immersed himself into the pictorial nature of the written letter and its obvious progression, the word. Yet here, the pendulum swings in the other direction, and we see Ruscha working in a more abstracted context, one where groundbreaking technique can be married with pith of subject in order to achieve a unique piece of art; one where nostalgia, sadness, and somber beauty intersect with the utmost visual eloquence: “The silhouette paintings that Ruscha began to paint in the mideighties dramatize the mechanics of viewing as a mixture of prototypical processes and archetypal images.” (B. Fer, “Mothman: Ruscha’s Light and Dark”, Ed Ruscha Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Edited by Robert Dean and Lisa Turvey, Gottingen, 2009, p. 7). Here, Ruscha's carefully selected imagery is an Anchor Stuck in Sand, partially obscured, sunken into the cold recesses of an ocean shoreline. There is no evidence of the ship that was once tethered to the anchor’s position, yet the image retains our attention so readily and with a command so great that we need not search for any further narrative. At the upperright corner of the painting, Ruscha airbrushes the solemn hues of an impending dawn, gradually fading to twilight. Conceding to a landlocked fate, Ruscha fades the corporeal-like figure into the melancholy atmosphere, leading to the cold dunes. Certainly, the symbolism of the anchor carries far more weight than one might suspect, powerfully suggestive in its cinematic language, the significance of this object can be interpreted as the artist’s emotional anchoring to the West coast, a place that has inspired Ruscha for decades. The artist has described the early Los Angeles art scene of the 1950s and 1960s as “a cultural dry spot, the Australia of the art world – way out there, very small and undeveloped.” (Ed Ruscha in M. Gayford, “Ruscha: interv