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Lot Essay
Painted in 1973, Devil or Angel is a quintessential example of Ed Ruscha’s early ability to balance aesthetic elegance with wry humor. One of an exceptional series of works the artist made in the late 1960s and early 1970s using organic materials as opposed to traditional paint, the italicized letters that spell out the words “devil or angel” have been formed against a raw white canvas using the colored juice of a red cabbage. The minimal look achieved by the painting’s tight composition and spare formal elements—the single, pale color and the easily legible, quotidian font—conflicts with the freighted meaning of the three words to create a resonant work that cannot be ignored.
Positioning the words centrally on a large, nearly square canvas, Ruscha appears to be posing a bold question to the viewer. Yet, in leaving out the question mark, the text transforms into an enigmatic statement. The mystery is further underlined by the textured, hand-painted quality of the red cabbage stain used to articulate the letters. Its pale pink-orange color feels ephemeral and fragile, which is firmly at odds with the striking biblical imagery evoked by the three words. Ruscha always plays with the relationship between text and image, allowing words to float free of their usual semantic associations. As he has said, combining words and images creates a pivotal “tension [that] is where I live” (E. Ruscha, quoted at “Ed Ruscha and the Art of the Everyday”, online [accessed: 4/8/2025).
Unusually for Ruscha, whose work is characteristically impersonal, the words featured in Devil or Angel hint at the artist’s own autobiography. Born in 1937 in Oklahoma, Ruscha was raised Roman Catholic. "I am a confirmed atheist today, but the church helped me get where I am," he told a newspaper in 2021. (E. Ruscha, quoted in M. Wecker, “Ed Ruscha, the most famous Catholic artist few Catholics know, National Catholic Reporter, January 21, 2021) Over the course of Ruscha’s career, he has continued to explore some of the central tenants of the faith in which he was raised in works such as, "Evil" (1973), 99% Angel, 1% Devil, (1983), "51% Angel, 49% Devil" (1984), “Heaven" (1988), "Hell" (1988), "Miracle" (1999) and "The Holy Bible" (2003).
The use of non-traditional methods to make Devil or Angel is rooted in a fascination with materials that originated in the artist’s childhood. A friend used Higgins India ink to draw cartoons, and from that moment Ruscha was hooked. “I had a very tactile sensation for that ink; it’s one of the strongest that has affected me as far as my interest in art” (E. Ruscha, quoted at Tate, ibid).
This interest was reflected in one of Ruscha’s earliest bodies of work, from which Devil or Angel would emerge. This included Stains, a portfolio of prints made in 1969, which consisted of works made using egg yolk, turpentine, beer, salad dressing, gunpowder and even the artist’s own blood. He went on to make works on linen and canvas, using materials as diverse as Pepto-Bismol and caviar, chocolate and rose petal stain, cilantro stain and egg yolk. Such imaginative combinations and bold experiments speak to Ruscha’s consistent ability take elements from the everyday and rethink them entirely afresh, an impulse that has rightfully positioned him as a central figure in postwar American art.
Positioning the words centrally on a large, nearly square canvas, Ruscha appears to be posing a bold question to the viewer. Yet, in leaving out the question mark, the text transforms into an enigmatic statement. The mystery is further underlined by the textured, hand-painted quality of the red cabbage stain used to articulate the letters. Its pale pink-orange color feels ephemeral and fragile, which is firmly at odds with the striking biblical imagery evoked by the three words. Ruscha always plays with the relationship between text and image, allowing words to float free of their usual semantic associations. As he has said, combining words and images creates a pivotal “tension [that] is where I live” (E. Ruscha, quoted at “Ed Ruscha and the Art of the Everyday”, online [accessed: 4/8/2025).
Unusually for Ruscha, whose work is characteristically impersonal, the words featured in Devil or Angel hint at the artist’s own autobiography. Born in 1937 in Oklahoma, Ruscha was raised Roman Catholic. "I am a confirmed atheist today, but the church helped me get where I am," he told a newspaper in 2021. (E. Ruscha, quoted in M. Wecker, “Ed Ruscha, the most famous Catholic artist few Catholics know, National Catholic Reporter, January 21, 2021) Over the course of Ruscha’s career, he has continued to explore some of the central tenants of the faith in which he was raised in works such as, "Evil" (1973), 99% Angel, 1% Devil, (1983), "51% Angel, 49% Devil" (1984), “Heaven" (1988), "Hell" (1988), "Miracle" (1999) and "The Holy Bible" (2003).
The use of non-traditional methods to make Devil or Angel is rooted in a fascination with materials that originated in the artist’s childhood. A friend used Higgins India ink to draw cartoons, and from that moment Ruscha was hooked. “I had a very tactile sensation for that ink; it’s one of the strongest that has affected me as far as my interest in art” (E. Ruscha, quoted at Tate, ibid).
This interest was reflected in one of Ruscha’s earliest bodies of work, from which Devil or Angel would emerge. This included Stains, a portfolio of prints made in 1969, which consisted of works made using egg yolk, turpentine, beer, salad dressing, gunpowder and even the artist’s own blood. He went on to make works on linen and canvas, using materials as diverse as Pepto-Bismol and caviar, chocolate and rose petal stain, cilantro stain and egg yolk. Such imaginative combinations and bold experiments speak to Ruscha’s consistent ability take elements from the everyday and rethink them entirely afresh, an impulse that has rightfully positioned him as a central figure in postwar American art.