ED RUSCHA / NOW THEN at LACMA

The artist’s first retrospective in 20 years opened this weekend and includes paintings, drawings, and books from a career spent documenting our LA landscape and the myth of California.

ED RUSCHA / NOW THEN is open at LACMA, having traveled from a smash run in NY, and is on view through October 6.

Back of Hollywood (1977)

Words emblazoned on paintings and photographs are part of the commonplace now, but, in many ways, we have Ed Ruscha to thank for this contemporary effect. An Oklahoma-born artist who came to Southern California as a young man to study commercial art at what is now CalArts, Ruscha fell in love first with graphics and then with Los Angeles itself. After nearly sixty years, his name and his imagery speak to the high artistry of Pop Art. Ruscha has chronicled the life of our city and his work has become the very definition of California cool.