Sunset Strip (Liquor Locker)
Ed Ruscha, Artist
See full detailsObject Detail
About the Work
The
images
Ruscha
produced
in
the
1960s
and
70s
such
as
'Every
Building
on
Sunset
Strip',
intrigued
his
contemporaries
and
earned
him
an
unshakable
reputation.
How?
His
subject
matter
was
neither
purely
documentary
nor
solely
artistic,
in
fact
it
was
stereotypical
and
banal,
with
motifs
drawn
from
the
car-dominated
western
landscape.
That
rebellious
material,
along
with
his
serial
presentation,
made
for
a
mythical
road-movie
or
photo-novel
effect
with
Beat
Generation
overtones.
The
combination
attracted
artists
and
critics
both,
especially
while
serial
logic
was
prominent
in
Pop
art
and
Minimalism,
and
then
retained
that
interest
later
as
serial
work
became
prominent
in
Conceptual
art.
This work is part of a series called "Sunset Strip".
"Sunset Strip: ‘It means a way of light.’ As Ruscha processes it in his pictures, this light is true and illusory at once, the hallucinated (or medicated) stuff of Hollywood dreams that offers a ‘feeling of concrete immortality’. At the same time, Ruscha presents this dream-space as thin and fragile (one of his keyed-up sunsets contains the words ‘eternal amnesia’ in small print at the bottom), and sometimes there is a hint of catastrophe, a sick glow beyond the usual smog, a touch of Nathaniel West or Joan Didion. Though he is a believer to the end, Ruscha suggests that Los Angeles might be a mirage and California a myth – a façade about to crumble into the desert, a set about to liquefy into the sea."
- Hal Foster. London Review of Books, 2 September 2004
Starting in 1963, with the publication of Twentysix Gasoline Stations, Ruscha began a series of photographic art books that documented ordinary aspects of life in Los Angeles. For Every Building on the Sunset Strip, Ruscha mounted a motorized Nikon to the back of a pick-up truck and photographed every building he passed. The resulting book, with the pictures printed in order and labelled with their street numbers, achieved an effective non-judgemental and almost anthropological record of previously unexplored details and aspects of the urban experience. Ruscha exercised control over each step of the bookmaking process and with the use of inexpensive offset printing, standard paper, and simple, paperback bindings, he created a new genre of art book designed for commercial distributors rather than art galleries. Ruscha's books, which became a staple of Conceptualism, were extremely influential to younger generations of artists.
This work is part of a series called "Sunset Strip".
"Sunset Strip: ‘It means a way of light.’ As Ruscha processes it in his pictures, this light is true and illusory at once, the hallucinated (or medicated) stuff of Hollywood dreams that offers a ‘feeling of concrete immortality’. At the same time, Ruscha presents this dream-space as thin and fragile (one of his keyed-up sunsets contains the words ‘eternal amnesia’ in small print at the bottom), and sometimes there is a hint of catastrophe, a sick glow beyond the usual smog, a touch of Nathaniel West or Joan Didion. Though he is a believer to the end, Ruscha suggests that Los Angeles might be a mirage and California a myth – a façade about to crumble into the desert, a set about to liquefy into the sea."
- Hal Foster. London Review of Books, 2 September 2004
Starting in 1963, with the publication of Twentysix Gasoline Stations, Ruscha began a series of photographic art books that documented ordinary aspects of life in Los Angeles. For Every Building on the Sunset Strip, Ruscha mounted a motorized Nikon to the back of a pick-up truck and photographed every building he passed. The resulting book, with the pictures printed in order and labelled with their street numbers, achieved an effective non-judgemental and almost anthropological record of previously unexplored details and aspects of the urban experience. Ruscha exercised control over each step of the bookmaking process and with the use of inexpensive offset printing, standard paper, and simple, paperback bindings, he created a new genre of art book designed for commercial distributors rather than art galleries. Ruscha's books, which became a staple of Conceptualism, were extremely influential to younger generations of artists.
Measurements
Image 508 x 762mm
Frame 690 x 926mm
Frame 690 x 926mm
Media
Silver-gelatin print mounted on museum board
Description
Black and white photograph of a street scene on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood with the Liquor Locker store and a huge Las Vegas sign behind.
Credit Line
Collection of the Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui. Purchased on behalf of the Gallery by the Sarjeant Gallery Trust, 2009. © Edward J. Ruscha IV
Collection Type
Permanent collection
Acquisition Date
21 Oct 2009
Share
Artist:
Nationality:
Accession Number:
2009/4/1