Details
Edward Ruscha (b. 1937)
Reef
signed and dated 'Edward Ruscha 1975' (on the reverse)
blackberry juice on paper
14 1/8 x 22 7/8in. (36 x 58cm.)
Executed in 1975
Provenance
Benefit auction for Contemporary Art Museum Houston, 4-11 March, 1977.
Texas Gallery, Houston.
Anon. Sale, Christie's New York, 11 May 1983, lot 278.
Private Collection.
Anon. sale, Sotheby's New York, 16 November 1995, lot 363.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.
Literature
L. Turvey, Edward Ruscha: Catalogue Raisonné of the Works on Paper, Volume One: 1956-1976, New Haven 2014, p. 449, no. D1975.46 (illustrated in colour, p. 400).
Exhibited
Avignon, Collection Lambert, Collections d'Artistes, 2001, unpaged.

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Alexandra Werner
Alexandra Werner

Lot Essay

‘I also liked, in LA, all the misspelled words on signs and the homemade signs, like ‘watermelon’ [for sale]. I thought of it as a kind of folk art. Getting them down, painting them, is like making them official, glorifying them, putting them on stage. I guess that’s what poets want to do: put ideas on stage. I settle for a single word.’ – Edward Ruscha

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