Ed Ruscha: Sponge Puddle
Printed in Venice, California, by Hamilton Press on Rives BFK paper, this lithograph by Ed Ruscha features one of the majestic mountains that became a dominant motif in his work beginning in the late 1990s. His meticulously super-realistic precipices are based on photographs, but he describes them as “mountains of the mind,” explaining that they function as “anonymous backdrops for the drama of words.” The juxtaposition of terms limned in the Boy Scout Utility Modern font the artist developed in the early 1980s is classic Ruscha. The assonance of the words creates rhythmic cohesion, and their pairing is at once whimsically novel and, in conjuring an image of liquid residue around a sponge, wholly plausible. A strikingly gradated sunset, another Ruscha trademark, imparts an additional element of cinematic glamour. This work is a color trial proof for the edition.
Artist: Ed Ruscha
Producer: Hamilton Press
Date: 2015
Medium: Lithograph on paper
Dimensions: 29 × 28 inches (73.7 × 71.1 cm)
Edition: CTP 5/18 + Edition of 60 + 12 AP
Signed: Signed, numbered, and dated on recto
Framed: Sold unframed
