(ED RUSCHA) (DENNIS
HOPPER)
(“Ruscha”) (Double
Standard). Los Angeles: Ferus Gallery,
1964. Lithograph in black and green ink on white paper. 13 x 10”. Folded as issued.
This is the vintage
exhibition poster commemorating Ed Ruscha’s second one-person exhibition that opened at Ferus on October 20th, 1964 and where Ruscha
originally exhibited his paintings of gasoline stations for the first time. This printing constitutes the original reception context for his
friend, Dennis Hopper’s now infamous 1961 photograph taken through a windshield
at the intersection of Santa Monica and Melrose: it captures a pit stop to
which Ruscha would return again: a Standard Station and its doubled signs. A
billboard over the gasoline station reads: “Smart Women Cook with Gas in
Balanced Power Homes,” slyly eliding Ruscha’s own interest in signs, wordplay,
gasoline stations, and small fires evident in his then-recent works. The
photographic image is juxtaposed not with the quotidian details of the
exhibition’s place and time, but simply with the loud signal of an early
Op-like typeface, honking the artist’s name in green ink: “RUSCHA”.
Although Dennis
Hopper’s photographs were incorporated into several Ferus Gallery exhibition
poster contexts, this one—whose vantage and subject dovetails so closely with
the young Ruscha’s own aims—was both a familiar and uncanny choice. “The Double
Standard photograph of mine,” Hopper recalled, “which I took in 1961 was Ed’s
announcement for his 1964 show (at Ferus) of paintings of Standard gas
stations, one of which I bought, I think, for $780.” That the double boomerang
of Hopper and Ruscha’s photographic readymades depicting urban scrawl — gasoline
stations, billboards/signs, wordplay, font-play, and more
— finds
cross-pollination in this particular and original ephemeral context is a
combustible elixir of Los Angeles car, cool, fame, and flame. This perplexing
publication is the authentic 1964 issue, printed in its vintage strike. Very
good condition. With no pinholes or time staining. Not to be confused with the
different printed context of Ace Gallery’s re-issue of Hopper’s negatives as
over-sized, boutique art photographs in 2006.
© Todd Alden 2012 Enquire
© Todd Alden 2012 Enquire