Ed Ruscha: That Was Then This Is Now
This Was Then This Is Now is a lithograph by Ed Ruscha published by Vermillion Editions Limited. The titular phrase is rendered in Boy Scout Utility Modern, an unembellished typeface of the artist’s own design, and set in stark white over a stormy sky of layered gray tones printed with thirteen different plates. The dramatic light and celestial atmosphere of the backdrop suggest the credits of a vintage film, imbuing the familiar motto with a sense of cinematic tension that oscillates between past and present, optimism and pessimism. Revisiting imagery that Ruscha introduced in 1989, this lithograph was published in 2014 in an edition of 75.
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 wryly explore the frequent disconnect between ideas and their expression. The resonance of this work’s theme extends to the title of the artist’s career retrospective organized in 2023 by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art: ED RUSCHA / NOW THEN.
Artist: Ed Ruscha
Date: 2014
Medium: 13-color lithograph on paper
Dimensions: Unframed: 34 1/2 × 46 inches (87.6 × 116.8 cm); Framed: 37 5/8 × 49 1/8 × 2 1/8 inches (95.7 × 124.8 × 5.4 cm)
Edition: Edition 5/75
Signed: Signed, numbered, and dated on recto
Printer: Vermillion Editions Limited
Publisher: Vermillion Editions Limited
Framed: Sold framed
