Pop Artist Ed Ruscha "Course of Empire" Exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC

The Massive spent last Sunday afternoon at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. We were there to check out an exhibition of works by the influential pop artist Ed Ruscha. The show is titled "Course of Empire: Paintings by Ed Ruscha," and it consists of just ten works. As a collection, this set of Ruscha's works were exhibited as the U.S. contribution to this year's Venice Bienniale.

We've been fans of Ruscha's work ever since we first laid eyes on it as a teenager at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Course of Empire" is an update on what is perhaps Ruscha's most famous paintings, a series of black-and-white minimalist perspective landscapes called "Blue Collar." The paintings depict 20th Century industrial buildings and scenes.

For "Course of Empire," Ruscha has added a series of color paintings depicting the same buildings and scenes in their re-purposed post-industrial state 13 years later. The corresponding paintings are displayed across from each other in the Whitney Museum's massive fifth floor gallery.

Though this is a small exhibtiion (albeit in a big space), it's most defintiely worth seeing.

Essential Links
Catching Up with Ed Ruscha [N+1 Magazine]
Ed Ruscha Biography [Wikipedia]
Whitney Museum of American Art

Posted by Supercore at January 11, 2006 11:55 PM