1979, Ed Ruscha, America's Future -- Los Angeles County Museum of Art (special exhibition)
From the museum label: Ruscha often alludes to his road trips throughout the American West and considers the vast, open road to be the inspiration for many of his paintings. Asked about the unusually long and skinny format of paintings from the late 1970s, such as this one, Ruscha remarked, "I'm a victim of the horizontal line and the landscape. I guess maybe I'm trying to put more time and mileage between one end and the other." Here, the artist depicts the kind of luminous sunset he encountered during his trips between Oklahoma City and Los Angeles. Barely visible within the panoramic vista is the painting's evocative title, its diminutive scale seemingly at odds with its weighty subject.
1979, Ed Ruscha, America's Future -- Los Angeles County Museum of Art (special exhibition)
From the museum label: Ruscha often alludes to his road trips throughout the American West and considers the vast, open road to be the inspiration for many of his paintings. Asked about the unusually long and skinny format of paintings from the late 1970s, such as this one, Ruscha remarked, "I'm a victim of the horizontal line and the landscape. I guess maybe I'm trying to put more time and mileage between one end and the other." Here, the artist depicts the kind of luminous sunset he encountered during his trips between Oklahoma City and Los Angeles. Barely visible within the panoramic vista is the painting's evocative title, its diminutive scale seemingly at odds with its weighty subject.