Ed Ruscha, London

About

The Los Angeles-based artist Ed Ruscha is one of the most consistently inventive American artists of the last fifty years. Ruscha’s work explores his fascination with the enigmatic power of language, and is heavily influence by the glossy, democratic, sun-kissed culture of the American West Coast in the second half of the twentieth century. His art is often compared to pop and conceptual Art but nonetheless escapes easy categorisation. His influence extends beyond painting into the publication of artists' books, of which format Ruscha was a contemporary pioneer.

For this exhibition, six ARTIST ROOMS including Robert Therrien’s gigantic sculpture No Title (Table and Four Chairs) 2003 filled the central gallery of a display exploring scale. Other highlights included major paintings by Ed Ruscha and Andy Warhol in the States of Flux galleries on Level 5. Works by Jannis Kounellis and Anselm Kiefer were shown in a suite of galleries dedicated to the arte povera movement.