Ed Ruscha , Newcastle upon Tyne

About

Los Angeles-based artist Ed Ruscha is one of the most consistently inventive American artists of the last fifty years. Since the early 1960s he has channelled his fascination with words and the act of communication into books, print-making, photography, drawing and painting.

This exhibition comprised 63 pieces dating back to 2010, incorporating the artist's work in oils, acrylics, etchings, photographs, pastels, mixed media works, lithographs and silkscreens, as well as prints using the patented 'mixografia' technique. The show offered visitors to see the work of Ruscha, one of the foremost practitioners of American Pop Art (though his oeuvre cannot be reduced to that movement), in a venue that might conceivably be called the birthplace of Pop. The great British artist Richard Hamilton was a lecturer at Newcastle University when he showed his 'Man, Machine and Motion' installation, one of the founding masterpieces of the movement, at the Hatton in May 1955.

The Hatton Gallery hosted a series of free talks around the exhibition, part of an outreach programme that includes art workshops for children and teenagers.