Response to Pasquariello

"Ed Ruscha and the Language That He Used"

Lisa Pasquariello

This article examines the text based works of Ed Ruscha. Ruscha is an artist that is associated with the pop art movement but was also trained to paint in an Abstract Expressionist manner. Pasquariello points out that Ruscha's work is not entirely Pop and that his work also fits into a Conceptualist framework.

Between 1960 and 1972 Ruscha depicted over four hundred words. Pasquariello talks about the kinds of words Ruscha chose and why he was drawn to them. In the first decade of Ruscha's practice he chose mostly single words, which fits in with the simplicity and directness of Pop. Generally in Pop-art the work is devoid of traces of the artist's hand, it shows no obvious traces that it was created by an artist. The focus is instead on the mechanical production of the work. In Ruscha's work, however, you can see the brushstrokes, the layers of paint and the exposed canvas. He also depicts the words without any accompanying imagery. This fits into the Conceptural proposal that language can be both the matter and subject of an artwork. 

"...he developed a language-centred practice in the very medium rejected by many Conceptualists." (Pg. 89)

"Annie", Ruscha, 1962.

Ruscha says that certain words attract him and his work goes back and forth between how the work looks and what the words mean. Ruscha's sense of language means that he has to capture words or phrases when he sees them before they disappear. He then goes on to  join the sense of the word with it's physical form and attempts to find the connection between the pictorial form and its meaning. He is very careful to not be too literal with his depiction of the words and tries to portray them as he sees them. 

"Whether or not the work communicates anything to anyone is not important to me...Sometimes I don't care about the definition of the word."  (Pg. 90)

"Because I love the language. Words have temperatures to me. When they reach a certain point and become hot words, then they appeal to me... Sometimes I have a dream that if a words gets too hot and too appealing, it will boil apart, and I won't be able to read or think of it. Usually I catch them before they get too hot." (Pg. 91)

"Quit", Ruscha, 1967.

"Damage", Ruscha, 1964.

"I like the idea of a word becoming a picture, almost leaving its body, then coming back and becoming a word again." (Pg. 96)

I really like Ruscha's work, but I am more attracted to his drawings than his paintings. His work is beautiful and the words he chooses to depict are very interesting. I like that Ruscha doesn't just fit into one framework. Although he is associated a lot with Pop, he also links in with Conceptual ideals. Ruscha presents words in a very different way and endows them with life. 

"Self", Ruscha, 1967.