Sale: 560 / Evening Sale, Dec. 06. 2024 in Munich Lot 124000931
124000931
Edward "Ed" Ruscha
Miracle #69, 1975.
Pastel on firm paper
Estimate:
€ 180,000 - 240,000
$ 198,000 - 264,000
Information on buyer's premium, taxation and resale right compensation will be available four weeks before the auction.
Miracle #69. 1975.
Pastel on firm paper.
Signed and dated on the reverse, also inscribed “69 Really Spritual” by an unknown hand and with a direction arrow. 98 x 75.3 cm (38.5 x 29.6 in), the full sheet. [JS].
• With an oeuvre positioned between Pop Art and Conceptual Art, Ruscha is considered one of the most influential figures in American post-war art.
• Just as with the famous painting “Large Trademark with Eight Spotlights” (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York), Ed Ruscha also expresses his fascination with Hollywood in “Miracle #69.”
• Ruscha stages the spherical light effects of the cinema in the deep black of the room.
• A comparable pastel “Miracle #64”, which belongs to the collection of the Tate Modern, London, was included in the major retrospective “ED RUSCHA /NOW THEN” at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 2023/24.
PROVENANCE: Texas Gallery, Houston.
Private collection Japan (until 2022).
Private collection Hesse (since 2022).
EXHIBITION: Various Miracles, Ace Gallery, Los Angeles, November 25 - December 24, 1975.
LITERATURE: Lisy Turvey (ed.), Edward Ruscha. Catalogue raisonné of the works on paper, New Haven / London 2014, vol. I, no. D1975.69.
"`Hollywood dreams'- I mean, think about it. Close your eyes and what does it mean, visually? It means a ray of light, actually, rather than a sucess story."
Ed Ruscha, quoted from: www.tate.org.uk
"When it comes to the protagonists of US art after Abstract Expressionism, Ed Ruscha still needs to be mentioned more often. Now, MoMA hosts a retrospective in honor of the Californian artist."
Sebastian Moll, Monopol magazine, September 18, 2023.
Pastel on firm paper.
Signed and dated on the reverse, also inscribed “69 Really Spritual” by an unknown hand and with a direction arrow. 98 x 75.3 cm (38.5 x 29.6 in), the full sheet. [JS].
• With an oeuvre positioned between Pop Art and Conceptual Art, Ruscha is considered one of the most influential figures in American post-war art.
• Just as with the famous painting “Large Trademark with Eight Spotlights” (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York), Ed Ruscha also expresses his fascination with Hollywood in “Miracle #69.”
• Ruscha stages the spherical light effects of the cinema in the deep black of the room.
• A comparable pastel “Miracle #64”, which belongs to the collection of the Tate Modern, London, was included in the major retrospective “ED RUSCHA /NOW THEN” at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 2023/24.
PROVENANCE: Texas Gallery, Houston.
Private collection Japan (until 2022).
Private collection Hesse (since 2022).
EXHIBITION: Various Miracles, Ace Gallery, Los Angeles, November 25 - December 24, 1975.
LITERATURE: Lisy Turvey (ed.), Edward Ruscha. Catalogue raisonné of the works on paper, New Haven / London 2014, vol. I, no. D1975.69.
"`Hollywood dreams'- I mean, think about it. Close your eyes and what does it mean, visually? It means a ray of light, actually, rather than a sucess story."
Ed Ruscha, quoted from: www.tate.org.uk
"When it comes to the protagonists of US art after Abstract Expressionism, Ed Ruscha still needs to be mentioned more often. Now, MoMA hosts a retrospective in honor of the Californian artist."
Sebastian Moll, Monopol magazine, September 18, 2023.
The innovative, creative work of the US artist Ed Ruscha encompasses more than six decades. His importance as one of the key figures of American post-war art was recognized with the major retrospective “ED RUSCHA/NOW THEN” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York earlier this year. For paintings inspired mainly by the urban landscape of his adopted home, Los Angeles, Ruscha became one of the most influential artists of his generation. Commonplace subjects such as advertising and film decisively shaped his work and established a connection to Pop Art in terms of content and form. At the same time, Ruscha's playful use of letters stands in the tradition of Dada and draws on elements of Conceptual Art. Since 1956, Ruscha has called Los Angeles, the capital of the American film industry, his home. From then on, the city's characteristic visual influences would shape Ruscha's artistic work. As early as 1962, he created his legendary painting “Lage Trademark with Eight Spotlights”, which shows the logo of the the film production company Twentieth Century Studios shining brightly in the dark. Today, the work is part of the Whitney Museum of American Art collection in New York. As is the case with the celebrated 'Hollywood Paintings', which he started to make in the late 1960s, and which also show the legendary Hollywood logo from different perspectives in front of a bright red sky (such as 'Hollywood Study' from 1968, Museum of Modern Art, New York), Ruscha has always been concerned with the depiction of extreme light phenomena, which are characteristic of the film industry's self-conception. Alongside these legendary logos, the practices of filmmaking and screening in movie theaters have repeatedly inspired the artist. In “Miracle #69,” a bright, multifaceted beam of light, like a divine miracle, illuminates the deep black space. The ray of light from the projector that illuminates the movie theater ushers at the moment when reality and fiction collide when the audience is pulled out of their existence and plunged into another world. Like the scenes of the Annunciation in medieval art, the bright beam of light heralds the supernatural and allows it to flash through the darkness of our everyday lives. “Miracle #69” was created in 1975 as part of a series of works with about ten other pastels with related motifs. Today, most of these are in American private collections, and in 2018, one was acquired for the Tate collection, from which it recently featured in the significant Ruscha retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. [JS]
124000931
Edward "Ed" Ruscha
Miracle #69, 1975.
Pastel on firm paper
Estimate:
€ 180,000 - 240,000
$ 198,000 - 264,000
Information on buyer's premium, taxation and resale right compensation will be available four weeks before the auction.