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Gallery Text

When Ruscha moved to Los Angeles in 1956 to study commercial design at the Chouinard Art Institute, he was drawn to the proliferation of visual and textual information in the urban landscape. He began to examine language, pop culture, and Hollywood’s distinctive streets and architecture, notably in his 1960s photography books, prints, and paintings. Highland, Franklin, Yucca builds on this earlier work. Here Ruscha derived the textual diagram from Hollywood’s street grid, while he copied the landscape from a book on the Himalayas. As Ruscha has suggested, the mountains also evoke the snowcapped peak of the Paramount Pictures film studio logo. The smoky beige cloud, however, interferes with the legibility crucial for commercial logos. Unlike commercial design, Ruscha’s painting confuses rather than communicating a clear message. Its conflicting modes of visual presentation mimic the experience of processing disjunctive information in the contemporary urban world.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2000.240
People
Edward Ruscha, American (Omaha, NE born 1937)
Title
Highland, Franklin, Yucca
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1999
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/186819

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions
152.4 x 154.9 cm (60 x 61 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: On verso, in graphite: Ed Ruscha 1999
  • label: On verso, affixed to stretcher: HIGHLAND, FRANKLIN, YUKKA // ACRYLIC ON CANVAS // 60 X 60" (152.7 x 152.7 cm.) // EDWARD RUSCHA 1999 CODE #P.99.30

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills, California], sold; to Harvard University Art Museums, 2000.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Purchase through the generosity of Laura-Lee W. Woods, an anonymous donor, the Broad Art Foundation, Fifth Floor Foundation, The Charles Engelhard Foundation, Catherine and Paul Buttenwieser Foundation, Bruce A. Beal, and William Danoff
Copyright
© Ed Ruscha
Accession Year
2000
Object Number
2000.240
Division
Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact
am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Richard D. Marshall, Edward Ruscha: Made in Los Angeles, exh. cat., p. 196
  • Richard D. Marshall, Ed Ruscha, Phaidon Press Limited (London and New York, 2003), repr. p. 249 (color)
  • Stephan Wolohojian and Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Harvard Art Museum/ Handbook, ed. Stephan Wolohojian, Harvard Art Museum (Cambridge, 2008), p. 252, ill.

Exhibition History

  • Landmark Pictures: Ed Ruscha/Andreas Gursky, Harvard University Art Museums, Busch-Reisinger Museum, 01/08/2000 - 03/19/2000
  • Looking at America, Yale University Art Gallery, 04/23/2002 - 07/28/2002
  • Recent work of Ed Ruscha, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, 02/13/2004 - 04/11/2004
  • Contemporary Art from the Harvard University Art Museums Collections, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 06/23/2007 - 01/31/2008
  • 32Q: 1100 60’s Experiment, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 04/10/2018

Subjects and Contexts

  • Collection Highlights

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu