"Published to accompany the exhibition In Focus: Ed Ruscha, on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center, Los Angeles, from April 9 to September 29, 2013, this book focuses on Ruscha's photographic work, specifically the thirty-eight images he made for his 1965 photobook Some Los Angeles Apartments"--Provided by publisher.

An immense contribution to scholarship on Ed Ruscha and his pioneering artistic practice, offering thorough documentation of his works on paper This highly anticipated book—the first in a series of three—comprehensively chronicles the first two decades of Ed Ruscha’s (b. 1937) work on paper, which comprises the largest component of his production of original works. Over 1,000 works on paper are documented, all created between 1956 and 1976, and they encompass a wide range of formats, materials, themes, and styles. Included are collages, ephemeral sketches, preparatory studies for paintings, oil on paper works, and drawings executed in a variety of inventive materials, including gunpowder and organic substances. Ruscha came to prominence in the early 1960s as part of the Pop art movement, although his work equally engages the legacies of Dada, Surrealism, and Abstract Expressionism as well as the Conceptual art that emerged later in the decade. He has long enjoyed international standing and admiration, and his work is widely known. Despite this recognition, this volume contains hundreds of works that have infrequently, or never, been exhibited or published. Each work is catalogued with a color reproduction, collection details, full chronological provenance, exhibition history, and bibliographic references. Essays by Lisa Turvey and Harry Cooper complete this extraordinary survey, which expands and enriches our understanding of Ruscha’s pioneering exploration of the written word as a subject for visual art and his witty assessment of the iconography of Los Angeles, both real and imagined.

The renowned artist Ed Ruscha was born in Nebraska, grew up in Oklahoma, and has lived and worked in Southern California since the late 1950s. Beginning in 1956, road trips across the American Southwest furnished a conceptual trove of themes and motifs that he mined throughout his career. The everyday landscapes of the West, especially as experienced from the automobileÑgas stations, billboards, building facades, parking lots, and long stretches of roadwayÑare the primary motifs of his often deadpan and instantly recognizable paintings and works on paper, as well as his influential artist books such as Twentysix Gasoline Stations and All the Buildings on the Sunset Strip. His iconic word imagesÑdeclaring Adios, Rodeo, Wheels over Indian Trails, and Honey . . . I Twisted through More Damn Traffic to Get HereÑfurther underscore a contemporary Western sensibility. RuschaÕs interest in what the real West has becomeÑand HollywoodÕs version of itÑplays out across his oeuvre. The cinematic sources of his subject matter can be seen in his silhouette pictures, which often appear to be grainy stills from old Hollywood movies. They feature images of the contemporary West, such as parking lots and swimming pools, but also of its historical past: covered wagons, buffalo, teepees, and howling coyotes. Featuring essays by Karin Breuer and D.J. Waldie, plus a fascinating interview with the artist conducted by Kerry Brougher, this stunning catalogue, produced in close collaboration with the Ruscha studio, offers the first full exploration of the painterÕs lifelong fascination with the romantic concept and modern reality of the evolving American West. Published in association with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Exhibition dates: de Young, San Francisco: July 16ÐOctober 9, 2016

The first book to consider the importance of commercial art and design for Ed Ruscha's work Ed Ruscha (b. 1937) emerged onto the Los Angeles art scene with paintings that incorporated consumer products, such as Spam and SunMaid raisins. In this revelatory book, Jennifer Quick looks at Ruscha's work through the tools, techniques, and habits of mind of commercial art and design, showing how his training and early work as a commercial artist helped him become an incisive commentator on the presence and role of design in the modern world. The book explores how Ruscha mobilized commercial design techniques of scale, paste-up layout, and perspective as he developed his singular artistic style. Beginning with his formative design education and focusing on the first decade of his career, Quick analyzes previously unseen works from the Ruscha archives alongside his celebrated paintings, prints, and books, demonstrating how Ruscha's engagement with commercial art has been foundational to his practice. Through this insightful lens, Quick affirms Ruscha as a powerful and witty observer of the vast network of imagery that permeates visual culture and offers new perspectives on Pop and conceptual art.

A Dictionary of the Avant-Gardes recognizes that change is a driving force in all the arts. It covers major trends in music, dance, theater, film, visual art, sculpture, and performance art--as well as architecture, science, and culture.

Arranged in alphabetical order, these 5 volumes encompass the history of the cultural development of America with over 2300 entries.

Theorists critique photography for ÒobjectifyingÓ its subjects and manipulating appearance for the sake of art. In this bold counterargument, John Roberts recasts photographyÕs violating powers and aesthetic technique as part of a complex Òsocial ontologyÓ that exposes the hierarchies, divisions, and exclusions behind appearances. Photography must Òarrive unannouncedÓ and Òget in the way of the world,Ó Roberts argues, committing to the truth-claims of the spectator over the self-interests and sensitivities of the subject. Yet even though the violating capacity of the photograph results from external power relations, the photographer is still faced with an ethical choice: whether to advance photographyÕs truth-claims on the basis of these powers or to diminish or veil these powers to protect the integrity of the subject. PhotographyÕs acts of intrusion and destabilization constantly test the photographer at the point of production, in the darkroom, and at the computer, especially in our 24-hour digital image culture. RobertsÕs refunctioning of photographyÕs place in the world is therefore critically game-changing, as it politically and theoretically restores the reputation of the art.

Often portrayed as a confluence of cars and movies, this book traces another course to uncover Los Angeles’ primal sources of creation – land and opportunity. Within the endless sprawl there reside flurries of uncodified spatial configurations that no high-definition map or satellite image can accurately capture nor present. (IN)formal L.A. explores a range of unique spatial practices and pedagogies through the lens of politics in Los Angeles. While this book articulates growing skepticism in current design discourse and education, it also provides a spatial awareness that is culturally rooted, socially responsive and vitally connected to the city. Composed of essays, photos, projects and interviews, (IN)formal L.A. embraces the quirky, celebrates the wide and embellishes the close range to expose the complex social organizations within this contemporary urban network. (IN)formal L.A. serves as both a textbook for classes in art and architecture, urban design, planning and theory in addition to responding to the increasing interest in the study of Los Angeles by scholars in other fields. The book provides an extended overview of the range and variety of urban issues that are critical to understanding present-day Los Angeles. “As hard as it is to wrap the mind around the urban mosh pit known as Los Angeles, it is always comforting to think someone has given a knowing push toward deciphering its DNA. Victor Jones’s compilation of critical essays and native observations does just that. Every L.A. explorer needs a copy in his or her back pocket.” — Craig Hodgetts, partner of Hodgetts+Fung and professor of architecture, University of California, Los Angeles “What form will the contemporary city, with all its fugitive qualities, continue to take? This book, with Los Angeles as the backdrop, tackles the question head on, adding ideas and dimension that will be relevant to the debates concerning all emerging cities.” — Michael Maltzan, principal of MMA and architect of Innercity Arts, Los Angeles “The studio at the heart of this book, and the essays that circle around it, show how architectural practice and pedagogy can open up a space of possibility for more democratic and just forms of political life to emerge if we are willing to embrace and build upon their fragile yet persistent reverberations.” — Aron Vinegar, Director of Art History and Visual Culture, University of Exeter, UK and author of I AM A MONUMENT: On Learning from Las Vegas

In this original and engaging book, Cécile Whiting examines what Pop looked like when it left the highbrow cloisters of Manhattan's art galleries and ventured westward to the sprawling suburbs of Los Angeles.

Ordinary. Banal. Quotidian. These words are rarely used to praise architecture, but in fact they represent the interest of a growing number of architects looking to the everyday to escape the ever-quickening cycles of consumption and fashion that have reduced architecture to a series of stylistic fads. Architecture of the Everyday makes a plea for an architecture that is emphatically un-monumental, anti-heroic, and unconcerned with formal extravagance. Edited by Deborah Berke and Steven Harris, this collection of writings, photo-essays, and projects describes an architecture that draws strength from its simplicity, use of common materials, and relationship to other fields of study. Topics range from a website that explores the politics of domesticity, to a transformation of the sidewalk in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo, to a discussion of the work of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown. Contributors include Margaret Crawford, Peggy Deamer, Deborah Fausch, Ben Gianni and Mark Robbins, Joan Ockman, Ernest Pascucci, Alan Plattus, and Mary-Ann Ray. Deborah Berke and Steven Harris are currently associate professors of architecture at Yale University, and have their own practices in New York City.