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EDWARD TYLER NAHEM FINE ART
Ed Ruscha: Ribbon Words
Text by Dieter Buchhart, Alexandra Schwartz, Glenn O'Brien.
The is the first publication to focus on Ed Ruscha’s (born 1937) Ribbon Word works, begun in 1966. It features reproductions of more than 50 masterpieces, along with three essays by the show’s curator Dieter Buchhart, as well as contributions by Glenn O’Brien and Alexandra Schwartz, highlighting the works’ wide array of subtle color and nuanced drawing technique, and showing how Ruscha’s paper ribbons became three-dimensional, illusionistic objects. Ruscha developed this body of work from calligraphic lines and cursive handwriting in order to give his drawings the appearance of three-dimensional forms. His imaginary ribbon-word objects provoke multiple cultural meanings as they suggest sculptures modeled by light. Ruscha’s breathtaking work, using an inimitable trompe l’oeil technique with the application of gunpowder, constitutes a major contribution to 20th-century art.
"News" (1970) is reproduced from 'Ed Ruscha: Ribbon Words.'
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"Okla." (1968), is reproduced from Ed Ruscha: Ribbon Words, a truly beautiful book, and the first to collect this body of work produced between 1966 and 1973. "The artist's words are sometimes literal, sometimes pun-like, sometimes cryptic, or even mystical," Glenn O'Brien writes. "When they confound they seem almost mantra-like—as a focal point for an entire field of meaning or suggestion. This effect is heightened by the carefully composed backgrounds the words rest on, or float above—backgrounds made of shadow (and by implication invisible light sources), by mists and clouds, and illuminated atmospheres. The shadows give a certain sense of solid presence and gravity, while the glowing atmospheres suggest auras—the radiance of objects charged with electromagnetic force." continue to blog
Ed Ruscha's 1979 gunpowder and pastel drawing, "Hollywood" (1979), is reproduced from Ribbon Words, a new release this week. "I had, for some reason, a little box of gunpowder, and, I mean, I knew that this was made with charcoal and sulfur and salt, and so I jut thought, well, charcoal, I'm going to try this. And it was in little pellets, so I tried soaking it in water, and it dissolved the salts out, but it left a charcoal that had a kind of a warm tone to it, and it could be used in a way that was very easy to correct when you wanted to—if you made a mistake you could correct it much easier than you could if you used graphite. And so it became a convenient material that I liked. It had a good surface to it. So pictorially, I liked working with it." continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 11 x 8.5 in. / 112 pgs / 65 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $65.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $87 GBP £57.00 ISBN: 9780996918114 PUBLISHER: Edward Tyler Nahem Fine Art AVAILABLE: 8/23/2016 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: WORLD
Published by Edward Tyler Nahem Fine Art. Text by Dieter Buchhart, Alexandra Schwartz, Glenn O'Brien.
The is the first publication to focus on Ed Ruscha’s (born 1937) Ribbon Word works, begun in 1966. It features reproductions of more than 50 masterpieces, along with three essays by the show’s curator Dieter Buchhart, as well as contributions by Glenn O’Brien and Alexandra Schwartz, highlighting the works’ wide array of subtle color and nuanced drawing technique, and showing how Ruscha’s paper ribbons became three-dimensional, illusionistic objects. Ruscha developed this body of work from calligraphic lines and cursive handwriting in order to give his drawings the appearance of three-dimensional forms. His imaginary ribbon-word objects provoke multiple cultural meanings as they suggest sculptures modeled by light. Ruscha’s breathtaking work, using an inimitable trompe l’oeil technique with the application of gunpowder, constitutes a major contribution to 20th-century art.
