Splinters and Seconal

1973 - Painting (Painting)

11H x 20W inches

Ed Ruscha

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In 1970, Ruscha began a series of paintings made from stains. He experimented with a variety of materials (gun powder, dust, blood, among many others) to leave surface traces of different objects. The resulting images are negative shapes amidst blurry environments like Splinters and Seconal in which a grey surface is imprinted with the materials mentioned in the title. The reference to the sedative Seconal, moves the drawing’s obscure form from the abstract to the hallucinatory.

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Ed Ruscha’s work often uses the city of Los Angeles to look at the banality of urban life. He is known for his early conceptual works like the seminal 1962 Twenty-Six Gas Stations (1962) in which he photographed twenty-six gas stations to map of his journey between Los Angeles and Oklahoma. Often drawing material from mass media and playing with language, Ruscha’s works assume the form of painting, drawing, photography, as well as publications.

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Colors:

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• negative.n.02
• trip.n.02
• trace.n.02
• imprint.n.04
• material.n.01
• stain.n.01
• artists' books
• black-and-white photography
• collage
• conceptual art
• american
• pop art
• artist's book