ED RUSCHA (AMERICAN 1937-)
CITIES, FROM THE 'WORLD' SERIES (ENGBERG 121) - 1982
Estimate: £4,000 - £6,000
Auction: 26 March 2025 from 10:00 GMT
Description
Lithograph, 11/40, signed, dated and numbered in pencil, printed and published by Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles, with their blindstamp
Dimensions
the sheet 63.5cm x 121cm (25in x 47.5in)
Provenance
Private Collection, U.S.A. - The current owner's father had the full folio, acquired in the 1980s, and then distributed the individual prints between family members.
Footnote
Ruscha published the ‘World’ Series at Gemini in 1982. As Siri Engberg elaborates, they feature the artist’s characteristic wordplay but ‘he zooms further out, presenting images of the planet Earth and vast, low-slung horizons neatly marked with text – a geographical version of the sort of demarcation one might find on a historical timeline.’ Meanwhile, the long stroke lines ‘create the suggestion of animation-style motion: a spinning globe, caught for a split second’ (Siri Engberg, Out of Print; The Editions of Ed Ruscha, pg. 38). The resultant effect is energetic and playful, deceptively simple but with deeper layers of reference and significance, exploring what it means to try and capture aspects of the world and our experience in a single image or word.