Docent-Led Tour of "Ed Ruscha and the Great American West" Exhibit (9/18)

DAASV is pleased to bring you private, docent-led tours of three important exhibitions of California and Western art. Three Bay Area museums have brought together exhibits of the historic West, of the work of an important California artist showcasing the Southwest, and of a wide range of artists illustrating the history of water in California. The second of these is the "Ed Ruscha and the Great American West" exhibit at the de Young Museum of Art.

Ed Ruscha and the Great American West includes 99 works that reveal the artist’s engagement with the American West and its starring role in our national mythology. This exclusive exhibition celebrates the career of one of the world’s most influential and critically acclaimed artists. In 1956, at the age of 18, Ed Ruscha left his home in Oklahoma and drove a 1950 Ford sedan to Los Angeles, where he hoped to attend art school. His trip roughly followed the fabled Route 66 through the Southwest, which featured many of the sights—auto repair shops, billboards, and long stretches of roadway punctuated by telephone poles—that would provide him with artistic subjects for decades to come.

This collection reveals Ruscha’s fascination with the evolving landscape and iconic character of the “Great American West” in symbolic, evocative, and ironic renditions. These include works that depict gasoline stations, long an important element of Ruscha’s work, as well as others that comment on Los Angeles and the film industry, such as his famous “Technicolor” images of the Hollywood sign. Ruscha has now worked in his California desert studio for more than 50 years, and this exhibition celebrates his long commitment to exploring the American west as both romantic concept and modern reality.