Ed Ruscha: That Was Then This Is Now II
Published by Vermillion Editions Limited, this hand-pulled 13-color lithograph by Ed Ruscha sets the wording of its title against an ominous cloudy sky. Ruscha has used the immediately recognizable Boy Scout Utility Modern, an unembellished typeface of his own design, to render the print’s gnomic yet familiar idiom. The highly atmospheric backdrop shadows the motto with a cinematic tension that causes it to oscillate between optimistic and pessimistic views. First printed in an edition of 75 in 2014, Ruscha revisited the imagery ten years later in a smaller edition of 11.
Over the course of a more than sixty-year career, Ruscha has assembled a broad lexicon of symbols, images, and words drawn from vernacular American culture. Using a range of mediums, he continues to explore the frequent disconnect between ideas and their expression with a wry wit.
Artist: Ed Ruscha
Date: 2014/2024
Medium: 13-color lithograph on paper
Dimensions: 34 1/2 × 46 inches (87.6 × 116.8 cm)
Edition: Edition 4/11
Signed: Signed, numbered, and dated on recto
Printer: Vermillion Editions Limited
Publisher: Vermillion Editions Limited
Framed: Sold unframed
