The exhibition catalogue highlights the works’ wide array of subtle color and nuanced drawing technique demonstrating how Ruscha’s paper ribbons became three-dimensional, illusionistic objects. Developing from the lines of cursive handwriting, the artist found a way to transform line into the appearance of three-dimensional forms. His imaginary ribbon word objects provoke multiple cultural meanings as they suggest sculptures modelled by light. Ruscha’s breathtaking work, using an inimitable trompe l’oeil technique, with the application of gunpowder, constitutes a major contribution to the history of art in the 20th century.
Curator and author Dieter Buchhart is an expert in modern and contemporary art. He has curated numerous major exhibitions of works by artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Georges Braque, and Edvard Munch, at institutions including the Guggenheim Bilbao, the de Young Museum in San Francisco, the Brooklyn Museum, the Fondation Beyeler, Basel, the Albertina, Vienna, and the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
Glenn O’Brien is a writer and editor, focusing on contemporary art and culture. He has written numerous monographs and essays on artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, and Christopher Wool.
Alexandra Schwartz is the author of Ed Ruscha’s Los Angeles (2010) and editor of Ed Ruscha: Leave Any Information at the Signal (2004). She is the winner of the National Book Critics Circle’s Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing for 2014.