Cathy's Art Diary

Small display at the British Museum to highlight their acquisition of six screen prints by Ed Ruscha called “Insects”. The set of prints is from 1972 showing life sized insects resting or moving across the paper. They were detailed depictions of the insects in a minimal setting. They also showed the portfolio they came in which contained soil from Ruscha’s elementary school. I loved the detail which, as someone who doesn’t like insects, made you want to swat the surface of the work. To bulk out the display, and to make the point that Ruscha often collects objects or categories in visual series, the portfolio was shown with sets of prints about roads. I loved his 2001 series of abstract, minimalistic imaginary maps. Closed 28 January 2024

Small exhibition   giving an overview of the career of Ed Ruscha. Ruscha began work in commercial graphics for a Los Angeles advertising agency and his art references the themes and techniques of advertising. I had seen his work before but hadn’t realised how much of it was painted. I’d assumed they were screen prints or manipulated photographs as they are so realistic. There were a number of his pictures combining idealised mountains with unrelated text and those painting realistic wood effects. I liked “Our Flag” the rather Jasper John’s like picture shown here. There were also some of his sequences of photographs shown both on the wall and in a small side room of the books he’s made. These included his pictures of parking lots from above taken in 1967 which he then revisted in 1999 and his Hockey like swimming pools of 1968. All the work felt like it was recording and commenting on the American Dream. Closing end of the year

Small exhibition at the National Gallery of two complimentary sets of pictures by Ed Ruscha.   The show consisted of five canvases from 1992 in black and white and five in colour from 2003 of the tops of box buildings in Los Angeles. Each pair of pictures shows the same building at both dates. In the earlier set the function of the buildings is clear such as Trade School or tyres. In the second set, which he describes as “an accelerated aged version of the same landscape” the buildings now how more ambiguous functions, the trade school is out of business and the Tool & Die is now a Korean firm.   This was a lovely pairing with the Thomas Cole show as they address a new American landscape and also address similar issues to the Rise and Fall of Civilisation series. I loved their large format and sparse design. Closes on 7 October 2018   Review Guardian