Photography

So, You Want To Work At An Art Gallery…

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Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava (*- unless otherwise credited).

Summer in the City is a time for Fresh Air Kids, scrambling to stay cool, making sure to put on that sunscreen and water, water, water. 

Notice that none of those are particularly Art-related. 

That’s because most of the galleries are on short schedules, closed on Saturdays, or maybe the entire month of August, and the museums are gearing up for their new fall seasons. As a result, it was easy to miss a sleeper show up at David Zwirner’s 19th Street location- After Hours, mounted just east of the construction going on in their western gallery, which they apparently figured summer was a good time to get done. I’m glad I didn’t sleep on it. It’s a show of Art by the staff of David Zwirner’s galleries around the world. Very handsomely installed, it’s easy on the eyes and a number of pieces linger in the mind. “Easy” and “linger”…two words that go nicely with summer. 

T. Dylan Moore, Self-Portrait, 2024, Casein on paper. Jasper Johns, has used this seemingly difficult medium to work with medium extensively, making me sit up and take notice of its possibilities- as T. Dylan Moore’s Self-Portrait does here (shot at an angle to minimize glare). Seen in After Hours, July 17, 2024. Pictures in this piece are thumbnails. Click any for full size.

I can hear some readers saying, “Man, it must be slow in NYC if he’s writing about a show by gallery staff members.” In reply I would remind readers that I first met Caslon Bevington in 2017 while she was working at David Zwirner. I have subsequently written about two of her solo shows.

Chase Barnes, Stateless Revision 1, Machine Vision, 2023, Multi-channel video installation on dual NEC monitors. Seen in  After Hours, July 18, 2024.

The big takeaway from After Hours for me is that there are A LOT of talented folks working for David Zwirner. This is not the first rodeo for any number of them. Chase Barnes, for example, already has a PhotoBook published by Jason Koxvold’s renowned Gnomic Book. It shows me the track to working at a major gallery is F A S T. Being an Artist looks good on a resume for a gallery gig, and having shown or been published travels well by repute. It’s also got to be a real asset for said Art dealer to have such people on their staff in innumerable ways. 

Lauren Ferrara, Absence, 2020, Found wood, recycled fabric, recycled paper, and recycled plastic bags, seen at After Hours, July 17, 2024.

In my experience, most people don’t give a second thought to staff members they encounter at an Art gallery. To work in a New York Gallery is an achievement in itself. A lot of people are drawn by the beauty and glamour of working with Art & Artists. That means there’s a lot of competition for these jobs. It serves to reason that an Artist seeking such employment would have an edge all other things being equal. And maybe that’s why the quality in After Hours was so high.

I was impressed with After Hours to the point that I saw it 4 times.The last two visits were because of  Oji Haynes. 

Kris Graves, the mastermind behind LOST IV taking a group portrait of 7 of the 10 Artist/Authors included in the set. From left, Oji Haynes, Richard Renaldi, Melody Melamed, Peter Baker, Tracy Dong, Melissa Alcena and Yoav Horesh. Seen at the LOST IV Book Release, Printed Matter, July 11, 2024.

I met Mr. Haynes at the Kris Graves Project’s 10-volume  LOST IV book release at Printed Matter. So taken with his PhotoBook, Anthem, was I that I took the bold step (for me) of walking over and telling him. We proceeded to have a remarkable conversation during which we discovered a shared passion for Art book collecting, with any number of overlapping Artists, from Robert Rauschenberg to Gordon Parks and Jeff Wall. He also revealed it was his first PhotoBook, consisting of an overview of his Photography to date,  and he had been reluctant to do it. Luckily, Kris Graves managed to convince him that now was indeed the time and the results are one of the strongest books (in my view) in the set. No mean feat in fast company. 

A spread from Anthem. Mr. Haynes told me he had originally envisioned the right-hand Photo as the cover. *- Kris Graves Projects Photo.

Then, he told me he had moved on in his practice and was now creating Sculptural pieces, and one of them was included in After Hours! Ahhh…he, too, is a David Zwirner staffer. I went back to the show on a mission.

Oji Haynes, Scriptures, 2024, String lights, cement, inkjet photo, diamond dust, and mixed media on fabric couch. Seen in  After Hours, July 17, 2024.

Tucked nicely into a corner at the far end of a large gallery, his piece, Scriptures, 2024, couldn’t be more different, yet similar, to his Photography. His book consists of intimate moments, most, but not all, including people- singly, in paris or small groups. Scriptures is intimate, as well, in a different way. Though I continue to ponder it, I had a few initial reactions. 

Left side showing the text, “LISTEN TO WHAT”

Right side showing the text, “GOD HAS TO SAY.”

First, it struck me as a collection of things people might find buried if they took apart a couch they’d had for a long time. Things that might fall out if you lifted it up from one end. Second, it gave me a feeling somewhat reminiscent to looking at Kerry James Marshall’s Souvenir II, a work that memorializes memories.

Kerry James Marshall, Souvenir II, 1997, Acrylic, collage, and glitter on unstreteched canvas banner. *-Renaissance Society Photo.

Then, I thought I’d love to see it hung between Mr. Marshall’s piece and Robert Rauschenberg’s revolutionary Bed. Rauschenberg mounted a bed on a wall. Mr. Haynes has mounted a couch on the two walls of a corner.

Robert Rauschenberg, Bed, 1955, Oil and pencil on pillow, quilt, and sheet on wood supports. The first work to take a piece of everyday household furniture and reenvision it. Of this work, Sarah Sze said, “That kind of intimacy is very specific to Rauschenberg. A willingness to be tender, to be intimate, to share a kind of a very interior urgency. An urgency to share a kind of interior self publicly1.” Her words resonated with me while seeing Scriptures. Seen at MoMA during Robert Rauschenberg Among Friends, August 5, 2017.

Or, next to them in chronological sequence. While Mr. Marshall’s piece may be seen as primarily a memorial to MLK, JFK and RFK and slain Civil Rights workers, the intimacy is heightened by the fact that it, and Mr. Marshall’s similar Souvenirs Series, take place in living rooms, where (no doubt) carefully chosen items abound, including couches. It’s that feeling and those items I thought of when seeing Mr. Haynes’s Scriptures. All three works are filled with the touchstones of a life, or the lives of an immediate few. In Oji Haynes’s case, the “meaning” is up to the viewer. I see a number of dreams in a self-enclosed space, though your results may differ. 

Oji Haynes holding a copy of his first PhotoBook, Anthem, at the LOST IV Book Release, Printed Matter, July 11.2024.

The definitions of “scriptures’ in the American Heritage Dictionary are- “1. A sacred writing or book. 2- A passage from such a writing or book. 3- The writings collected as the Bible.” Taking those as a point of context, tilts things to the “sacred,” and what’s sacred for whosever items these are. In one sense, it’s a time capsule of hopes, dreams, achievements, memories, simultaneously revealing the passage of time. Auspicious, indeed. Mr. Haynes was not on hand when I went back to After Hours. He told me he had to go install work in a show in San Francisco.

With work like Scriptures hot on the heels of a just-released auspicious first PhotoBook Anthem, Oji Haynes has already reached another new plateau. I’ll be among those watching with interest where he, and his Art, goes next. 

So, Beware: That Art gallery staff member you see or speak to on your next visit may well be an Artist whose work you’ll be going to see one day soon. It’s happened to me. More than once.

*- Soundtrack for this piece is “Summer in the City” by John Sebastian and Lovin’ Spoonful from 1966. This vintage video could have been shot here this week-

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for 9 years, during which 330 full-length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate by PayPal below to allow me to continue. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

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Ed Ruscha & The Two-Sided Coin of Influence

This site is Free & Ad-Free! If you find this piece worthwhile, please donate via PayPal to support it & independent Art writing. You can also support it by buying Art & books! Details at the end. Thank you.

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava (*- Unless otherwise credited.).

This is the third and final part of my look at Ed Ruscha/Now Then. Part 1  is here. Part 2 is here.

1- Heads

One door closed, another opened. Los Angeles County Museum on Fire, 1965-8, Oil on canvas, seen at MoMA. Ed Ruscha/Now Then is now open there. Pictures in this piece are thumbnails. Click any for full size.

Ed Ruscha/Now Then is a memory for those of us who saw it at MoMA from September 10, 2023 to January 15th of this year. It’s a memory in the making for those who are seeing it now at LACMA, seen above in Ed Ruscha’s 1965-8 nebulous “portrait” of it (which I discussed in Part 1), or will be seeing it until it closes there on October 6th. They’ll be pleased to know it’s a show with staying power, a show I continue to relive and think about on a daily basis, six months after it closed here. After following the trail of his devlopment in Part 1, “Ed Ruscha’s Head Scratchers,” seeing some echoes of the work of Artists past, I began to wonder… Every Artist I’ve come across has had influences. Who influenced Ed Ruscha? As the show was up, and now after it ended here, that question lingered.

Marcel Duchamp, L.H.O.O.Q., 1919, or later. One Artist Ed Ruscha has repeatedly expressed his admiration for is Duchamp, who he met in the early 1960s. There are numerous version of L.H.O.O.Q. since the 1919 original. I chose this one because t contains all the elements of the original, which I cannot find (if you have  let me know)- the mustache, the goatee, and the famous letters all of which Duchamp added to a Mona Lisa postcard. Duchamp once said that L.H.O.O.Q. means “there is fire down below,” though I’ve seen other definitions.  *- Photographer unknown.

“Duchamp had quite a sizable influence on me from a pictorial standpoint and from an emotional standpoint,” Ed Ruscha (Ed Ruscha, Leave Any Information After the Signal, P.324).

Ed Ruscha has not written an autobiography, so his book, Leave Any Information After the Signal, a collection of “Writings, Interviews, Bits, Pages” from 1960 to 2000 is the closest thing we have to a primary written source. In addition to just looking, I turned to it, along with the numerous other interviews he’s given over his six-decade plus career, for insights.

As seen in Part 1– Encountering Johns’s  Target with Four Faces in a black & white reproduction in a 1957 magazine was, he said, an ‘atomic bomb’ in his training, ‘a stranger fruit’ that he ‘saw as something that didn’t seem to follow the history of art. My teachers said it was not art. ‘I didn’t need to see the colors or the size…’ ‘I was especially taken with the fact that it was symmetrical, which was just absolutely taboo in art school- you didn’t make anything symmetrical…Art school was modernism, it was asymmetry, it was giant brush strokes…it was all these other things that were gestural rather than cerebral. So I began moving to things that had more of a premeditation1.’” Jasper Johns, Target with Four Faces, 1955, Encaustic on newspaper and cloth over canvas surrounded by four tinted-plaster faces in wood box with hinged front. Seen in Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror at the Whitney in 2021.

Besides naming Duchamp, Jasper Johns and his counterpart Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha hasn’t addressed the subject of influences all that often.

René Magritte, The Treachery of Images (This is Not a Pipe), 1929, Oil on canvas. (Not in the show.) *-LACMA Photo

Pondering the visual evidence, the first name that came to mind was Rene Magritte, 1898-1967, a well-known Belgian Artist who also had a long career and touched on a number of subjects Ed Ruscha has, while sharing his fondness for taking the familiar out of context (which Mr. Ruscha does with words, objects and places). He also incorporated words. Though often labelled a “Surrealist,” his work touches on any number of other realms and styles of Painting, which made him ahead of his time. As a result, his influence is extraordinary and ongoing. Time and again, I’d look at an Ed Ruscha, or a section of one, and think “Magritte,” beginning with Actual Size, 1962, which I showed in Part 1, which echoes Magritte’s The Treachery of Images, 1929 better known by the famous words it includes, “This is Not a Pipe2.” The Magritte seems to echo his contemporary, Duchamp’s L.H.O.O.Q., from 1919.

Salvador Dalí, Open Field with Ball in Centre and Mountains in  Rear, Study for the Walt Disney film Destino, 1948, Oil on masonite, left. Ed Ruscha, Painkillers, Tranquilizers, Olive, 1969, right. (*- Dali from the Dalí & Film MoMA catalog. Ed Ruscha as I saw it in the show.)3.

Of him, Mr. Ruscha said, “Yes, Magritte did influence me, but it came the other way around—what I call 360-degree influence. That’s influence from a person’s thoughts and force and not from his pictures, which the person being influenced has not seen, until later on. The same with Dalí. I’ve been influenced by Dalí, but it’s been through other sources. Because I’ll go back, and I’ll be working on something and I’ll see a picture of Dalí’s I’ve never seen before, and there is my work. (P.56).” I wrote about seeing Dalí in Rauscha in Part 1– before I found that quote.

Surrealism Soaped and Scrubbed, Ed Ruscha’s cover design for Artforum 5, No. 1, Special Issue: Surrealism, September, 1966. 

What about “Surrealism’s” influence, that of the group of European Artists so labelled?

Ed Ruscha was Art Director for Artforum Magazine from 1966-19724. His cover for the September, 1966 “Surrealism” Special Edition I find fascinating, particularly in regards to Ed Ruscha’s Art, overall. While this image has almost nothing to do with “historical Surrealism,” I find it ripe with the “kind” of surrealism (small “s,” which he also uses here) I see in Ed Ruscha’s work, while also being another of his trademarked play on words. There is nothing in “historical Surrealism” that influenced this (as far as I know), and so it’s another work that makes me wonder what, if anything, inspired it. On page 349 of Leave Any Information After the Signal, Mr. Ruscha denies the influence of the Surrealists handling of light on his work. That’s all he has to say about it.

The Back of Hollywood, 1977, Oil on canvas. Was Ed Ruscha the first to Paint words backwards? Probably not.

What about influences on his Word Painting? In After the Signal, he said,  “Well, there’ve been so many artists who have used words throughout the centuries really, but the ones I enjoy are mostly from the twentieth century. Say, Kurt Schwitters. [. . .] 5” On page 115, Paul Karlstrom directly asks Mr. Ruscha,  “Who were your heroes then, your role models?” He replied, “Well, I guess de Kooning was, and Franz Kline. Franz Kline had a lot to say at that particular time, and so they were more or less the passwords. You just emulated them, almost automatically. Then if you couldn’t emulate them you weren’t really on the right track. I still think that. But the work of Johns and Rauschenberg marked a departure in the sense that their work was premeditated.” It sounds like he was referring to his early days as a student under the Abstract Expressionist influenced Chouinard faculty in the late 1950s, as once again, it’s hard for me to see the influence of de Kooning or Kline in Ed Ruscha’s work.

Joan Miró, Photo: This is the Color of My Dreams 1925, Oil on canvas. *- Met Museum Photo

The Surrealists began as a literary “movement,” that experimented with “automatic writing.” Later, their influence spread to Painting. In Miró’s Photo: This is the Color of My Dreams, it comes full circle. Part of the Artist’s “peinture-poésie” (painting-poetry) series, this strikes me as a forerunner or precursor to the Word Paintings of Ed Ruscha. Yet, I have no idea if he saw it, or other works in Mirós series,  or when.

America’s Future, 1977, Oil on canvas. The title is shown in the next picture.

The feeling I’m left with is that these Artists “effected” him in ways outside of a direct visual influence. They are, what I call, “echoes.” What Ed Ruscha called “360 degree” influences. As for the stated influences, in Part 2, I mentioned that Thomas Cole was the influence on Mr. Ruscha’s Course of Empire series, from who he borrowed the name of the series. It seems to me the rest of his influences, if any, remain up for conjecture. Still, taking him at his work on possible influences would leave Ed Ruscha remarkably original.

Detail. Though Painted 18 years before he began his Course of Empire series I showed in Part 2, seeing this made me wonder if this work should be appended to the end of the series, i.e. the final outcome of it.

2- Tails

Turning the influence coin over, however, 67 years, and counting, into one of the most remarkable careers in American Art history, at this moment in time it’s hard to think of another Modern & Contemporary Artist, let alone an American Artist, who is more influential than Ed Ruscha is. In fact, it’s impossible for me to list here all the realms in which his influence can be seen. Those that come to mind the quickest include-

-His role in furthering the breaking of the strangle hold of Abstract Expressionism in Painting in the early 1960s.

-His unique way of incorporating words and typography into his Art.

-His Paintings of L.A. and the American West6.

No place on the planet has more Artist’s books than NYC’s Printed Matter, home of 15 ,000 books they’ve created. How many are/were inspired in part or wholly by Ed Ruscha? I don’t know the total but I keep finding more every time I go in. May 6, 2024.

-His ground-breaking Artist’s books/PhotoBooks. (Is it a stretch to say he’s played a defining role in the Contemporary Artist’s Book & PhotoBook phenomenon? I don’t think so.)

-His style of nonjudgmental roadside and aerial Photography.

-Entire genres of Painting, Photography and books have sprung up around his work.

Jeff Brouws, Various Small Books Referencing Various Small Books by Ed Ruscha, 2013. 288 pages of books, and just books, by other Artists influenced by Ed Ruscha, and it’s now 11 years old!

To this point, at least two substantial books, including the book above, have been published focused solely on his influence! All of this is even more impressive (or mind-boggling) when you consider Ed Ruscha is still with us and going strong at 86. Usually, the influence of Artists is something referred to in the past tense.

-His unique way of incorporating words and typography into his Art.

Ed Ruscha’s presence is so pronounced at Printed Matter, they even have a well-worn box just for books he’s influenced. ‘Nuff said. No, that’s not a copy of Mr. Ruscha’s very rare Twentysix Gasoline Stations. It’s Michalis Pincher’s 2009 homage to it, which “borrows” Ruscha’s cover verbatim.

All of this, also, makes it harder to fathom that Ed Ruscha/Now Then was the first large Ed Ruscha show here in 41 years7, and his first show at MoMA! That makes the extent of his influence that much more impressive. Suffice it to say it’s a lot easier to see Ed Ruscha’s influence than it might be to see the influence of others on his work.is so pronounced.

The saddest moment of the entire 4 month run of Ed Ruscha/ Now Then: the show’s entrance, moments after it closed for the last time on January 15, 2024. I saw it on its first preview day, and I was there when it closed for good. Shows are fugacious events. The ending of a great show is always sad; like saying “goodbye” to a friend. One you’ll never see again.

-Takeaways

In addition to providing an opportunity to ponder the scope of his influence, Now Then provides the chance to assess his achievement and his place among the important Artists of both the 20th and 21st centuries. Ed Ruscha strikes me as an Artist who is continually moving forward to the point that he is a seemingly endless innovator. Ed Ruscha/Now Then provided a rare chance to see the craft behind the mystery his work evokes; to watch the Artist move on an almost step-by-step basis from his beginnings though each of his phases, with a focus on his recurring themes and his innovations.

Yet, he’s also an Artist who’s extremely aware of his, and our, pasts, and his Art stays in touch with it often in surprising ways. Ed Ruscha has never stood still long enough to have any box his work gets put in fit for very long. The Ed Ruscha box is the only one that fits an Artist as extraordinarily diverse as Mr. Ruscha has been and continues to be. Ed Ruscha/Now Then is a show that will live long in memory, and no doubt, influence.

Part 1 of my look at Ed Ruscha/Now Then is here. Part 2 is here.

*- Soundtrack for this piece is  “Goodnight My Love,” as performed by Paul Anna. In 2017, MOCA commissioned a short documentary on two themes in Ed Ruscha’s work (the text of which is here). In the resulting piece, Ed Ruscha says, “I’m gonna play this tune called ‘Goodnight My Love’ and this represents everrything I felt about California when I first came out here…” Because he doesn’t specify which recording he’s going to play, I chose the Paul Anka version from 1969.

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for 9 years, during which 330 full-length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate by PayPal below to allow me to continue. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

For “short takes,” my ongoing “Visual Diary” series, and outtakes from my pieces, be sure to follow @nighthawk_nyc on Instagram!

  1. Alexandra Schwartz, Ed Ruscha’s Los Angeles, P.15 ↩
  2. I cannot think of Rene Magritte without thinking of the singular Photographer, Duane Michals. When I met him, I quickly shifted the chat from Photography to Painting. He rightly gloated over the fact that he had met and Photographed his three favorite Painters- Balthus, Giorgio de Chirico, and Rene Magritte, with who he did a terrific PhotoBook, that he graciously signed for me. All three are under-appreciated in my book, and remain among my favorites, too. ↩
  3. In spite of being among the best known, in my view, Dalí may be the most under-appreciated Artist of the 20th century, as anyone who saw the incredible Salvador Dalí Centennial Exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum in 2005 knows. It’s partially his own fault, as the endless fantastic stunts he put on overshadows the appreciation of his Art in my opinion. History will eventually fix that, I believe. ↩
  4. Alexandra Schwartz, P.35 ↩
  5. Ed Ruscha, Leave Any Information After the Signal, P. 324 ↩
  6. Along with those of, and quite different from,Georgia O’Keeffe. ↩
  7. As I mentioned in Part 1, the last big Ed Ruscha show here was the traveling retrospective, The Works of Ed Ruscha, which came to the Whitney Museum in 1982! ↩

Ed Ruscha’s Wall Rockets

This site is Free & Ad-Free! If you find this piece worthwhile, please donate via PayPal to support it & independent Art writing. You can also support it by buying Art & books! Details at the end. Thank you.

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava.

This is Part 2 of my look at Ed Ruscha/Now Then at MoMA. Part 1 is here, Part 3 is here.

From the late 1950s, through the early 1960s Ed Ruscha made regular trips back and forth between Oklahoma City, where he grew up, and L.A., his adopted home since the late 1950s. In 19621, he Photographed the gas stations that caught his eye on these journeys with his trusty Yashika Twin-reflex camera, taking 60 or 70 Photographs2. In an interview in 1973 he said, “What used to belong to the Navaho and Apache Indians now belongs to the white man and he’s got gas stations out there. So, I started seeing it as cultural curiosities.”

“I’d always wanted to make a book of some kind.”

He continues. “When I was in Oklahoma I got a brainstorm in the middle of the night to do this little book called Twentysix Gasoline Stations. I knew the title. I knew it would be photographs of twenty-six gasoline stations3.” “The first book came out of a play with words. The title came before I even thought about the pictures. I like the word ‘gasoline’ and I like the specific quality of ‘twenty-six4.'”  “Months went into the planning of that. I could have saved myself a lot of trouble by loosening up. You know, not gotten so concerned with how I wanted the thing to look. I changed the form about fifty times at the printer’s5.” He self-published Twentysix Gasoline Stations in 1963 (although the title page states 1962).

You’re looking at a revolution. Twentysix Gasoline Stations, 1963, revolutionized the Artist book, the PhotoBook, and street-side Phtography, with unique design, turning gas station Photography into a genre in the process. This copy was hanging for visitors to peruse, which was somewhat surprising as it’s now a rare book- even this second edition copy is worth hundreds of dollars. Knowing all of it from reproductions, this was the first time I was able to page through an actual copy of it. Pictures in this piece are thumbnails. Click on any for full size.

It’s an Artist’s book/PhotoBook whose influence is now incalculable.

Published in an edition of 400 copies, a case can be made that it ‘s the most influential PhotoBook of the contemporary period after Robert Frank’s The Americans (which the Artist acknowledges as an influence). Twentysix Gasoline Stations, with its “industrial” look and feel stood at odds with the frequently hand-made Artist’s book norm to the time. Virtually every aspect of the Artist’s book was reimagined, from the typography and text layout on the cover to the sparseness of the interior contents, with a lack of text save for image titles.

Believe it or not, this is one of the most influential Photographs in Modern & Contemporary Photography. STANDARD, ARMADILLO, TX, perhaps the key image in Twentysix Gasoline Stations, went on to have multiple lives of its own, inspiring numerous Ed Ruscha Paintings, Drawings & Prints, as well as the work of other Artists.

Speaking of the end result, he said-

“I realized that for the first time this book had an inexplicable thing I was looking for, and that was a kind of a “Huh?” That‘s what I’ve always worked around. All it is is a device to disarm somebody with my particular message5.”

Having immersed myself in PhotoBooks for the past 7 years, and Art books most of my life, it’s impossible for me to overstate the influence Twentysix Gasoline Stations has had, and continues to have, on the Art world. It turned Art & PhotoBook creation and publishing on its head, rewriting what a book could be and who could make one. He’s said he meant the pictures to be “like a collection of readymades7,” a term and genre Marcel Duchamp put on the Art map. Still, it received a mixed reaction when it was released, including famously being rejected by the Library of Congress.

Standard Station, Amarillo, TX, 1963, Oil on canvas, 64 15/16 x 121 13/16 inches. The “locomotive” compositional device, seen in Large Trademark with Eight Spotlights, 1962, in Part 1, returns, splitting the composition in two, just the beginning of what’s fascinating about this.

“I would say I came to painting through photography,” Ed Ruscha8

The STANDARD, ARMADILLO, TX, Photograph begat the Standard Station, Amarillo, TX Painting in 1963. Obviously, the Photo just shown has been reworked, reimagined, or he based this on another Photo. Whatever the case may be, the resulting composition seen here would subsequently take many forms and become iconic. Standard Station, Ten Cent Western Being Torn in Half, below, followed a year later.The Paintings begat Standard Station, Amarillo, TX Prints, with Standard Station, Amarillo, TX Drawings being created along the way. So ubiquitous did they become that gas station Paintings and gas station Photography are now, basically, his genres. Sooner or later, everyone who shoots or Paints a gas station is going to be compared to Ed Ruscha. Many, like Vik Muniz, openly acknowledge the influence.

What strikes me are the abstract elements, like the selective detailing- you can read the prices on the gas pumps, but detail disappears on everything behind them, creating a surreal experience (the “realistic” gas pumps offset against the featureless building behind them), under that big red sign whose white lettering, offset against the engulfing darkness, feels bold.

Standard Station, Ten Cent Western Being Torn in Half, 1964, Oil on canvas, 65 x 121 1/2 inches. Mr. Ruscha has likened  the comic flying off the canvas to the upper right to a “coda” in Music. For me, it looks like debris, garbage, pollution. In this piece, the featureless building has light and shadows added to it. Once again, the numbers and text on the gas pumps are very legible.

At the time, Ed Ruscha shot them, gas stations were bastions of the new found freedom of the open road and the catalyst of the massive post-war westward exodus that the Artist, himself, became a part of. Over time, gas stations would be seen differently as the toll of pollution and environmental decay mounted.

Ed Ruscha’s second most famous Artist book/PhotoBook. A copy of the legendary Every Building on the Sunset Strip, 1966, published in one long accordion fold. Ed Ruscha put a tripod on the back of a truck and went up and down Sunset Strip taking one Photo after another until he had shot every building on both sides of the street. Here, we get one direction on the top of the page, with what’s across the street synchronized and mirrored along the bottom.

Further books followed- 14 more to 1972, the most famous of which is Every Building on the Sunset Strip, 1966, another ground-breaking work. Ed Ruscha has stated that part of the reason he went west after high school, instead of east, was because of the glamour of L.A. Here, he shows the “glamour” of the famous Sunset Strip in all its “glory.” Then, in 1973, he shot all 12 miles of Hollywood Blvd. In 2004, he reshot Hollywood Blvd in color, and paired with the 1972 images, they became the book THEN & NOW in 2005. It’s one example of Ed Ruscha combining his love of the effects of time with revisiting his past subjects.

In all the acclaim he receives I almost never hear credit given the Artist for his exceptional Painting technique- the equal of anyone else’s of his time. Right from the start, Painting after Painting reveals sublime subtlety and under-appreciated skill.  Then Now provided a glorious chance to study his, often large, Paintings up close and marvel at his skill and taste. It also provides the extremely rare chance to see works of the same subject side by side, particularly two of his famous Standard Gasoline Station Paintings.

Shows present once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to see great works united from distant parts of the globe for a brief time. That’s why I waited over an hour for the crowds to part to get this shot. More than likely, I’ll never see these two great Standard Stations together again. Both of these also feature the “speeding locomotive” compositional device seen in the Large Trademark Painting, which adds to the somewhat surreal overall effect, wonder and mystery.

Further to the Large Trademark Painting, Ed Ruscha also began Painting the sights of L.A., which again seems to be his domain to the point that I can’t think of anyone who Painted the city before he did. (I’m sure there were. Right?)

“Being in Los Angeles has had little or no effect on my work. I could have done it anywhere.” Ed Ruscha, Leave Any Information at the Signal, Statement in “West Coast Style”

Los Angeles County Museum on Fire, 1965-8, 53 1/2 x 133. 1/2 inches. Fun fact- Guess where Ed Ruscha/Now Then reopened on April 7, 2024 after closing at MoMA? You’re looking at it.

Los Angeles County Museum on Fire, 1965-8, like most of Ed Ruscha’s work, has been the subject of endless conjecture. Over the years, the Artist has made a few statements about it, including this one, “… There’s no great message here. It’s just a picture to look at9.” That might be hard to believe. After graduating college, he took that trip to Europe I mentioned in Part 1, and came away disappointed at the lack of Contemporary Art on view in the museums. Back home, things weren’t much better. Contemporary Art was slow to gain admission to the hallowed halls of institutions here. Is it a stretch to think this was somewhere on his mind when he Painted this? I tend to think it was in there somewhere. The Watts riots had recently taken place. The Now Then Catalogue has this to say about it-

“Ruscha’s characteristic denial of content ignores the fact that not far from his studio in mid-August 1965, just a few months after the inauguration of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the city of Los Angeles was burning10.”

Ed Ruscha said, “The plain truth behind the Watts riots is that the riots themselves were good and beneficial and healthy regardless of loss of life. The Watts riots nationalized sympathy for a gigantic racial injustice11.”

He soon set a number of other sites on fire in his Paintings, including the an Amarillo Standard Station (which wasn’t in the show), and Norm’s, which was.

Norm’s, La Cienega, on Fire, 1964, Oil and pencil on canvas. The work features a complete lack of detail, save for the letters “ORMS” on the sign.  It’s interesting how the flames follow the “locomotive” line. Without those letters (which themselves are meaningless without the title), this Painting would be a completely abstract composition of shapes and lines.

For someone who’s so closely associated with L.A., and has been for over 60 years, it’s strange that some of his most well-known work shows L.A. landmarks being destroyed or in ruins. For example, he has continued to “destroy” the Hollywood sign, in different ways, over and over again throughout his career. Still, his fame continued to rise as did his association with the city. In spite of all this (and possibly because of it), in 1978, a six-story(!) tall mural (also referred to as the “Ed Ruscha Monument”) of the Artist was created by the Artist Kent Twitchell, for who Ed Ruscha was “the unorthodox hero of the art world.” Would anyone else be able to “destroy” a city’s landmarks and then become seen as the figurehead of that city’s Art community with a monument created for them? It didn’t happen for Nero. Unlike the emperor, Ed Ruscha didn’t actually destroy anything, except maybe in his mind and on some large canvases.

Rancho, 1968, Oil on canvas, which looks like it was made with a liquid, surrounded by Fire, Sin, Rustic Pines, each 1967, Gunpowder on paper, from left to right.

This calls to mind another thing Ed Ruscha doesn’t get enough credit for: innovation. In the 3rd, 4th and 5th galleries we see pieces made out of strange and unprecedented materials. Unhappy with the possibilities of paint or pencil, the Artist began exploring the possibilities of Drawing with gunpowder! The results, as seen above, are incredible. He found he had more control with it. In 1969, the Artist began going further, using unconventional materials in his Stains Portfolio of seventy-five substances ranging from L.A. tap water to egg yolk.

Installation view of Chocolate Room, 1971/2023, Chocolate on paper sheets.

His Chocolate Room for the United States Pavilion at the 1970 Venice Biennale, and recreated in a room of its own in Now Then, followed. After that, he began using a number of these “other” materials in his Word and Phrase Paintings.

Cotton Puffs, 1974. Egg yolk on moiré fabric, 36 × 40″

Along with this constant experimentation came the inevitable failure, like the egg yokes in Cotton Puffs, 1974, fading quickly. Ed has been remarkably cool with these. Accepting them for what they are12. (And probably learning in the process.) Each has its place in his oeuvre, with all the examples on view seeming to hold up remarkably well over the years given they are experiments. By the mid-70s, he had gone back to pastel on paper13. Though the materials experiments were short-lived, it led me to peruse the 7 volumes of the Ed Ruscha: Catalogue Raisonne of the Paintings, published by Steidl (which is a bit ironic- or fitting- because Steidl has published the work of any number of Photographers who include gas stations in their work, including the entirety of the 3-volume set, Gas Stop, by David Freund), which revealed that this insatiable exploration of materials was only the tip of his creativity iceberg. Paging through it (which only goes up to 2011 at this point), I was amazed to discover that though he has created a number of works with ostensibly the same subject, no two are identical. The differences are obvious or subtle. Still, this speaks to Ed Ruscha’s seemingly endless powers of invention and refusal to repeat himself verbatim. I was stunned when I discovered this, which was completely unexpected (though I should have been tipped off by what his STANDARD STATION, ALBUQUERQUE Photograph became). Seeing this range and variety gave me a glimpse of insight into just what may be keeping him going and creating since the late 1950s.

Wall Rockets, 2000, Acrylic on canvas

Perhaps THE highlight of Ed Ruscha/Now Then at MoMA for me was the chance to see 6 of the 10 Paintings from the Artist’s Course of Empire series. As I’ve looked at his work over the past 24 years of this century, these have fascinated me as much as any other work by Mr. Ruscha. Created for, and then debuted, at the 2005 Venice Biennalle, they subsequently travelled to NYC where they were on display at the Whitney in a show of the same name, the last important (though small) Ed Ruscha show in NYC until Now Then. Somehow, I missed them there, so seeing 6 might be as close as I get to seeing them all.

3 works from Ed Ruscha’s Blue Collar series, 1993, on the 3 facing walls.

Occupying the large, penultimate gallery of the show, the Course of Empire Paintings strike me as serving as a touchstone for a number of Ed Ruscha themes. They also eerily presage what has been going on in much of NYC (and perhaps elsewhere) this decade, with a number of stores and businesses closing due to Covid, then more closing due to the realities of our post-Covid (if we are post-Covid) economy, many have changed hands in a short time. Others remain for rent. The shape, perspectives and lack of detailing on the one-story  buildings I find reminiscent of Standard Station, Ten Cent Western Being Torn in Half, seen earlier. In each, our point of view is the same, and the same as in that Standard Station Painting- they are seen from below.

At the opposite end of the gallery, the same scenes reappear in his Course of Empire series, 2005, now in color, though right and left are flipped. (The scene on the right wall is that depicted on the left wall in Blue Collar Photo, above this one. The scene on the left wall is the scene shown on the right wall of the Blue Collar series above this one.)

The series evolved over a period of 13 years, with Ed Ruscha Painting the 5 black & white pieces, titled Blue Collar, in 1992-

Blue Collar Trade School, 1992, Acrylic on canvas. The only multi-story structure in the series.

Returning to the subject and the same sites  in 2005, this time in color and showing the effects of time passing.

The Old Trade School Building, 2005, Acrylic on canvas

Perhaps, his most subtly powerful series, their under-stated compositions lead to open-ended interpretations.

Installation view of the complete Course of Empire, by Thomas Cole, 1834-36, as seen at The Met’s Thomas Cole’s Journey in 2018. The rise and fall of civilization as seen from the same place, with the same distinctive mountain peak appearing in each Painting.

Based on, and in homage to, Thomas Cole’s legendary Course of Empire series, 1834-6, (which I wrote about here), they are another instance of Ruscha revisiting earlier work, his Blue Collar series from 1992. These also highlight that alongside the humor in any number of his pieces, running parallel, is a real depth of concern. Concern for the country, the world, the environment.

Psycho Spaghetti Western #7, 2010-11, Acrylic on canvas

“It’s all just rape of the land for profit these days. It’s fairly sick. Southern California is all just one big city now. But what do you say about progress? … So something’s got to give, and the landscape’s the first thing that gives….There is a certain flavor of decadence that inspires me. And when I drive into some sort of industrial wasteland in America, with the themeparks and warehouses, there’s something saying something to me. It’s a mixture of those things that gives me some sense of reality and moves me along as an artist,” Ed Ruscha 14.

Taking full advantage of having such a long career, the Artist has revisited past themes, and places, fairly often to the point that it’s a running theme in his work. Change over time…for the better, or worse, is left to the viewer to decide. Ostensibly set in L.A., the structures in Blue Collar/Course of Empire could be literally anywhere. As such they have a universality to them (as do a number of other 21st century Ruscha’s) that sets them apart from his purely L.A. work, like his Hollywood sign pieces.

Our Flag, 2017, Acrylic on canvas. The last work in the show.

Thomas Cole influencing Ed Ruscha’s Blue Collar & Course of Empire series started me thinking about other possible influences on his work. I touched on some in Part 1. In Part 3, I’ll take a closer look at them, and then flip that coin over.

Part 3 is here. 

*- Soundtrack for this piece is “L.A. Woman” by The Doors, one of the ultimate L.A. bands, from the 1971 album of the same name. (Narrowly beating out “California Girls” by the Beach Boys from Summer Days (And Summer Nights), 1965.) Ed Ruscha was into “car culture” before moving to L.A., and after, among other things he has in common with the #1 L.A. band of its time. Notice the gas station Jim Morrison, “another lost angel,” to quote his lyric, stops in to about half way through-

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for over 8 3/4  years, during which 320 full-length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate by PayPal below to allow me to continue. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

  1. Ed Ruscha: Catalogue Raisonne of the Paintings, Vol 7, P.476 ↩
  2. E.R., Tate, P.30 ↩
  3. Willoughby Sharp, ‘“… a kind of a Huh?”, An Interview with Edward Ruscha’, Avalanche, no.7, Winter/ Spring 1973, p.30. ↩
  4. ER, Tate, P. 31 ↩
  5. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/edward-ruscha-1882/ed-ruscha-and-art-everyday ↩
  6. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/edward-ruscha-1882/ed-ruscha-and-art-everyday ↩
  7. Reading Ed Ruscha, P.50 ↩
  8. Ed Ruscha, Photographer, P.7 ↩
  9. Ed Ruscha quoted in Ed Ruscha/Now Then Exhibition Catalog, P.21 ↩
  10. Ed Ruscha/Now Then Exhibition Catalog, P.21 ↩
  11. Ed Ruscha, Leave Any Information at the Signal, P.5 ↩
  12. E.R., Tate, P.65 ↩
  13. Ed Ruscha/Now Then, P.170 ↩
  14. Leave Any Information at the Signal, P.18 ↩

Kris Graves Receives the NighthawkNYC NoteWorthy PhotoBook of the Year Award

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Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava.

Over its 8 3/4 years of existence, the name Kris Graves has appeared in the pages of NighthawkNYC.com as much, and probably more often, than any other Photographer. Why? No one else is doing what he is doing.

On the one hand, he co-founded and runs one of the foremost Artist-owned publishing companies there is: Kris Graves Projects. Since its founding, KGP has given a voice to a remarkable list of Artists, releasing first-class publications at affordable prices, which lead to their books routinely selling out. More recently, he founded the Monolith imprint, “dedicated to showcasing work from artists of color across mediums that address issues of race, identity, equity, gender, sexuality, and class.” Exceedingly open to new talent, many of the Artists he’s published received their first opportunity to have a PhotoBook of their work published. Some are “names” now; a testament to his taste.

As if this isn’t enough, Kris Graves, himself, has created an important body of Photography that looks at our time, and the past, with a unique vision, one that foregrounds what it is to be Black in America today, while living with the past. The culmination of his work to this point is his 2023 book, Privileged Mediocrity (published by Monolith with Hatje Cantz), one of my two NoteWorthy PhotoBooks of 2023. He published the other, Jon Henry’s Stranger Fruit.

Since I don’t believe “best” exists in the Arts, I started publishing annual Noteworthy PhotoBook lists (and NoteWorthy Art Book lists) of the books I most highly recommend in 2018. Since that time, one of Kris Graves’s self-authored books, or one of the books he’s published has been one of my NoteWorthy PhotoBooks of the Year in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023! (I didn’t do a list in 2022.)

Verso.

Let’s break it down…

In 2018, Kris Graves Project’s 10-volume set, LOST, was one of my NoteWorthy PhotoBooks of 2018. The set includes Mr. Graves’s book Long Island City.

In 1019, KGP’s TWENTY-volume LOST II was one of my NoteWorthy PhotoBooks of 2019.  I wrote about the making of the set, which I called “monumental” at the time, here. It remains my personal favorite of the 4 LOST sets. LOST II includes The Bronx by Kris Graves.

In 2020,  Kris Graves Projects was my NoteWorthy PhotoBook Publisher of the Year for somehow managing to publish EIGHTEEN books during the height of the pandemic when working with ANYone else was extremely challenging to say the least. In addition, Mr. Graves took extensive trips documenting the Black Lives Matter Protests throughout the South, creating a body of work that would become the classic Privileged Mediocrity in 2023, at considerable personal risk. 2020 also saw him introduce the Monolith imprint.

2021 saw Electronic Landscape by Isaac Diggs & Edward Hillel, published by KGP, make the list under the “Excellent & Under the Radar” category. The book has since gone on to achieve legendary status.

After not doing a list in 2022 for personal reasons, Mr. Graves returned as the author/Photographer of one of the only two NoteWorthy PhotoBooks, 2023, and the publisher of the other, as I’ve said.

That’s pretty remarkable. And especially Worthy of Note, no?

And the winner is…Kris Graves at his KGP booth at AIPAD: The Photography Show, April 26, 2024.

Informing him that the only two books on my 2023 list were his, I told him I should just give him the trophy, he’s been on my list so many times. “If there is one, I want it,” he replied. So, I decided to make him a NighthawkNYC.com PhotoBook of the Year Trophy, shown in the first picture, which I have nicknamed “The Golden Oof,” in honor of my avatar, Oof the Owl (What’s the deal with me and Owls? “Sava” means Owl). 

Kris Graves with team member & book designer, Caleb Cain Marcus.

On April 26th, I presented it to him at his booth at AIPAD: The Photography Show. Also present was his team member, the wonderfully talented book designer Caleb Cain Marcus, who designed both books on my 2023 list. In addition to being an Artist, himself, Mr. Marcus has designed a number of Kris Graves Projects recent books, including their newest release, the 10-volume LOST IV, among books for any number of others. 

Holding down the fort at AIPAD: The Photography Show, 2024, with both of the 2023 NoteWorthy PhotoBooks. What other PhotoBook Award gives an actual trophy?

In a world of many fine Art & PhotoBook publishers, Kris Graves’s work consistently stands out. He has something of John Hammond’s gift for finding new talent and often pairs them with more established Artists in his LOST series to democratic effect that lets their work speak for itself in beautiful and affordable books- even in the face of raging inflation. While his books regularly sell out, a sure sign of public acceptance, I’ve been surprised his work and accomplishments haven’t been more widely recognized. Privileged Mediocrity and Jon Henry’s Stranger Fruit are classic cases in point. Look through a copy of either and you’ll see what I mean.

“Propose a toast
Let’s hear it for the spirits and the ghosts
Rejoices for the voices in my gut and in my dome
Are why I never drink alone
I think that’s noteworthy”*

*-Soundtrack for this piece is “Noteworthy” by Queens own Homeboy Sandman from Dusty. KGP is based in Long Island City, Queens.

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for over 8 3/4 years, during which 320 full-length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate by PayPal to allow me to continue below. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

Ed Ruscha’s Head Scratchers

This site is Free & Ad-Free! If you find this piece worthwhile, please donate via PayPal to support it & independent Art writing. You can also support it by buying Art & books! Details at the end. Thank you.

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava (*- unless otherwise credited)

Show seen: Ed Ruscha/Now Then @MoMA

Who doesn’t like the Art of Ed Ruscha?

Installation view of the entrance, September 14, 2023. Images in this piece are thumbnails. Click any picture for full size.

Walking through the crowds at MoMA’s winter blockbuster, Ed Ruscha/Now Then over my six long visits bookending a terrible, six-week illness, I saw smiles as visitors moved from piece to piece, yet I couldn’t help but wonder how many of them felt they “understood” his Art. While humor undoubtedly plays a part in the craft of an Artist who knows you catch more flies with honey than vinegar, however they appear at first glance, his work usually leaves me scratching my head.

Returning to look at it again and again, that his work says something different to me every time I look at it has kept Ed Ruscha among my favorite Contemporary Artists. Judging from the turnout at MoMA, I’m far from alone in that. Having the chance to explore, and be mystified by, 200 pieces of his Art in Now Then from the, approximately, SIXTY-SEVEN YEARS(!) he’s been making it proved an all-too-rare chance to take a good hard look and try to get to the bottom of the mystery.

I Don’t Want No Retro Spective, 1979, Pastel on paper. The catalog for the last Ed Rusha retrospective in 1982(!) is also known by the Ruscha on the cover of its catalog, I Don’t Want No Retro Spective, though the show’s title was THE WORKS OF ED RUSCHA. 

“All too rare,” as in Now Then is the first Ed Ruscha retrospective here since 1982, (and so mine, too): over FORTY YEARS ago!1 The gap between them is another head scratcher given how popular Ed Ruscha’s Art is. The title Ed Ruscha/Now Then can be taken as a reference to the Artist’s penchant for revisiting his subjects over time, as well as the fact the show includes old and recent work, or a chance to see his older work now. It’s also a rare retrospective of a West Coast Artist who came to prominence in the 1960s mounted on the East Coast. Bruce Conner didn’t live to see his at MoMA like Ed Ruscha has. Ed Kienholz, and Mr. Conner’s friend, Jay DeFeo, among others, are still waiting for their East Coast retrospective.

Installation view from just inside the entrance of the first gallery looking into the second. Boss, 1961, the famous Large Trademark with Eight Spotlights, 1962, and the infamous OOF, 1962-3, left to right, all Oil on canvas.

Walking through it, I became particularly fascinated by how his style(s) developed, and how Edward Joseph Ruscha IV became Ed Ruscha, one of the most influential Artists in the world among Modern & Contemporary Artists, if not THE most influential, at this point in time.

Oklahoma-E, 1962, Pencil, colored pencil and charcoal on paper

Born in Omaha in 1937, his family moved to Oklahoma City when Ed was 5. Early on, he had a passion for comics and a love of typography, particularly as it appeared in commercial publications. All of these are combined in Oklahoma-E from 1962, a seminal year in his early career. His initial desire was to become a Commercial Artist, and it was towards that end that he left OKC after graduating high school to head to L.A. with a friend in a lowered 1950 Ford, to study it. He chose to go west rather than east because of its energy, glamour, and its “hot rods and custom cars2.” Unable to get into his chosen school, he was accepted at Chouinard Art Institute (later Cal Arts, where Henry Taylor would study in the 1990s). His teachers, disciples of Abstract Expressionism, “wanted to collapse the whole art process into one act3.’’ “It (Abstract Expressionism) was, in his opinion, ‘a solid way of thinking…If you think about the paintings that were done in the 1950s, I find them overwhelming, nothing but quality…It was a very powerful time in art.’ However, ‘…within AbEx there was no room for my ideas4.'” While this frustrated him, they did succeed in getting him to change his focus from Commercial Art to Fine Art, which we can all be grateful for. After Now Then, I wonder if they accomplished more.

While in school in 1957 he had an epiphany.

One of the most extraordinary works of the 1950s. Jasper Johns, Target with Four Faces, 1955, Encaustic on newspaper and cloth over canvas surrounded by four tinted-plaster faces in wood box with hinged front. Seen in Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror at the Whitney in 2021.

“The breakthrough he sought came in 1957, when he spotted a small black-and-white repro of Jasper Johns’s 1955 Target with Four Faces in the Feb/Mar 1957 issue of Print Magazine. Encountering Johns’s painting was, he said, an ‘atomic bomb’ in his training, ‘a stranger fruit’ that he ‘saw as something that didn’t seem to follow the history of art. My teachers said it was not art. ‘I didn’t need to see the colors or the size…’ ‘I was especially taken with the fact that it was symmetrical, which was just absolutely taboo in art school- you didn’t make anything symmetrical…Art school was modernism, it was asymmetry, it was giant brush strokes…it was all these other things that were gestural rather than cerebral. So I began moving to things that had more of a premeditation5.’”

Dvision, 1962, Mimeograph on paper, One of five Prints by five Artists in the Portfolio issued in conjunction with the New Painting of Common Objects show.

That has continued to this day. Along the way, he and others (including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and James Rosenquist), built on what Johns, Rauschenberg and Marcel Duchamp had started: the “next thing” after Abstract Expressionism, an Art based in the recognizable, the familiar, the every day. Some called it “pop.” Personally, I see nothing but danger in trying to box Ed Ruscha (who has consistently eschewed boxes).

In fact, one word comes to my mind over and over again as I look at his Art over time: abstract. If I were going to use two words to describe it they would be “premeditated abstraction.” Look at Division, above. It contains what would become Ed Ruscha trademarks- text, typography, and images, combined in a way that are next to impossible for most viewers to “read.” If that’s not “abstract?” What is? Maybe his teachers would be proud after all. It was only through delving into his history, I found that 3327 Division Street was the address of his first L.A. studio6. The car might have been his. Does that mean there’s more of a backstory to it? I haven’t found it. In the end, for me this says there may, or may not, be personal meaning to some/many/even all of his Art, but, 60+ years on, they haven’t come to light. So, with Division, as with all his Art, the viewer is left to make of them what they will.

The two earliest piece in the show, SU, 1958, Oil, ink and fabric on canvas, (sixty-six years old!), left, with Dublin,, 1960, Oil and ink on canvas, right. Yes, a comma is part of the title.

Before graduating, he took hitchhiking trips that he immortalized in some of the earliest works in the show. the mysterious SU, 1958, the earliest, strikes me as a forerunner of what would come later. Even in these early works, text and imagery appear, though separately, as different elements that seem to stand apart from each other until the viewer brings them together, or creates a narrative around them, in his or her mind. These elements have continued in his work to this day, though he would soon start layering them. SU is, also, one of the relatively few of his works that refers to an actual person, the title referring to Su Hall, his girlfriend at the time.

Actual Size, 1962, Oil on canvas, 67 1/16 x 72 1/16 inches. His breakthrough work when it was included in the landmark New Paintings of Common Objects show. A Painted, flaming, “actual size” can of Spam in its lower section is accompanied by some brush marks that might be associated with Abstract Expressionism. In fact, a number of his early pieces, like Three Standard Envelopes, 1960, also include them. Given his prodigious technique, on display in this, I don’t see how these marks can be considered accidental. Jennifer Quick7 surmises these connote AbEx’s commercialization. I see them as Ruscha making this technique his own, using it in a way none of the AbEx Artists did. I also see it as an early example of the many forms that abstraction would take in his work.

A number of his early works are quite edgy, daring and ripe with a surprisingly loose use of the brush. Were these done for class to please his teachers, or…? In fact, even some later pieces, like his Stains portfolio, contains marks that seem right out of AbEx. These stands at the other end of the technical spectrum for an Artist who possesses a superb Painting technique, something he doesn’t get nearly enough credit for in my view. They also make me wonder if his AbEx disciple teachers had a bigger effect on their student than it might seem.

The rest of the gallery includes highlights of his early 1960s Word Paintings. We watch as he continued to strip away excess and refine his concept. Eventually, single words appeared alone on solid backgrounds This is interesting because he has said of his recent phrase Paintings that the backgrounds are simply that. Early on, as in Actual Size, they appear to be more.

Vienna, Austria, 1961. This striking Photo was in a vitrine in the show, which prevented my getting a decent picture. This image of it comes from the book Ed Ruscha and Photography, P.48

After  he graduated college, Ed spent 10 months on an extensive tour of Europe. While he reports not being impressed with the museums (among other things, he was disappointed by the lack of Contemporary Art), he took note of quite a bit of what he saw while out and about, particularly the street signs, with their foreign words, different design & typographies. He Drew and Painted a number of these, but he also put the new Yashica twin-lens reflex camera he was required to get in one of his classes to good use, taking a number of interesting Photos, beginning a revolutionary career in the medium in the process. Back home in fall, 1961, he set to work. Less than a year later his work was included in the landmark show, New Paintings of Common Objects at the Pasadena Art Museum, along with that of Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Wayne Thiebaud and others, and so-called “pop” Art was born. Ed Ruscha has consistently rejected being boxed, though he rode on the coattails of the “movement,” and the word is still used in describing his work, ignoring the visual evidence.

The first gallery concludes with an infamous work. Does this look familiar?

Ummm…It might not be what you might think it is. It’s a detail of the center of the target in Jasper Johns’s, Target with Four Faces, 1955, shown earlier. Now, look at this-

Yes! One of the two “Os” in Ed Ruscha’s OOF, 1962 (reworked 1963). Just five years after he saw Target with Four Faces, Ed Ruscha Painted the above. Coincidence? Homage? Fallout from that “atomic bomb going off in my training?” My feeling is the visual evidence is pretty strong for making a case for any or all three.

Hello! I’ve never appeared on NighthawkNYC over its 8 1/2 years, except in my self-portrait in the Banner (and a picture in my last piece, here, from the distant past). Until now. I’m introducing myself to NHNYC readers in front of a Painting I have a personal connection to: OOF, 1962-3, Oil on canvas, 71 1/2 x 67 inches on Ed Ruscha/Now Then’s final day, January 15, 2024. As for my “personal connection” to OOF? Very, very few know. My thanks to the lady who graciously agreed to take this.

Personally, it’s hard for me not to think there’s an influence; in the colors, the shape of the circle/”Os.” Even if it’s subconscious. Looking at both of these works now, they’re both revolutionary in their way. The Johns has been discussed at length over the past 60 years. Does anyone else think OOF is a revolutionary work, let alone a masterpiece? I believe it’s both. Revolutionary? It’s possibly the first time (as far as I know) that a Painting features a “word” that Merriam-Webster categorizes as an “interjection,” and not an actual “word” per se. I also believe it’s an “alt masterpiece.” Seriously. The composition, colors, font, placement of the text are all perfect, belying Ed Ruscha’s mastery of typography and graphic design, with the sublime taste that would be a hallmark of his work. OOF stands as the pinnacle of his early word Paintings in my view. Oof is a word, if it is one, that defies concrete understanding, making it a perfect (unofficial) conclusion of sorts to the series. Merriam-Webster says Oof is an interjection “used to express discomfort, surprise, or dismay8.” They point out “the first known use of the word was in 1777,” which I find hilarious. How do they know? Did they consult an Oofologist? They further define an interjection as “an ejaculatory utterance usually lacking grammatical connection9.”

Oof!

OOF everywhere around town. A first step to a better world! I yelled “OOF,” but he didn’t stop.

As such it seems to me that OOF stands as an outlier among the single words Ed Ruscha chose as the subjects of his early 1960s Word Paintings (BOSS, HONK, ACE, SMASH, FLASH and NOISE, shown below, et al) because it is quite abstract, and therefore, a jumping off point for what was to come. I wish I had asked viewers what the Painting said to them. Having owned it for 61 years, MoMA is well aware of its mysterious appeal. No doubt that is why the museum chose to emblazon OOF all around town as the focus of their show marketing.

Noise, Pencil, Broken Pencil, Cheap Western, 1963, Oil and wax on canvas, 71 1/4 x 67 inches. There are two Painted pencils in the piece, and lo and behold someone left another one on the floor, behind the left stanchion. I resisted the urge to move it for effect for this picture. Maybe, I should have…

Along with abstraction, it seems to me there are surreal elements in his work. Perhaps no single word Painting has these abstract/surreal qualities than Noise, Pencil, Broken Pencil, Cheap Western, 1963, which also represents an evolution. Ed Ruscha has long considered it one of his best Paintings[3, Per the wall card.]. In it, the mystery of the word is added to with three very realistic images, close to its own edge. Unusual for a Painting, or Art, it leaves the center, the focus of most Art, empty except for the background color. Most of the previous Word Paintings centered the featured word. As such, it’s both unique and a precursor of other works that combine words and images. It’s also both abstract, thought it depicts realistic objects, and surreal. If I read it from the left, the whole pencil lies quietly seemingly in mid-air. The word “NOISE,” another monosyllabic word, grows until it reaches the right side (again, like a speeding train) where it hovers above the broken pencil. The cheap western seems to be hovering in the air, too, like the left-hand pencil, where it wouldn’t make noise until it lands, which it might be close to doing. The Artist has created “action” from three still objects and a word.

In the catalog for that last major Ruscha retrospective there’s this-

“The broken pencil calls to mind the incident Ruscha has referred to a number of times in interviews when as a child in parochial school he was regularly rapped on the knuckles with a pencil by a nun who caught him misbehaving in class. Is the pencil, then, simultaneously a symbol of expression and repression10?”

If this is the case, though Mr. Ruscha has not said that this incident is what’s depicted here, my reading of it wonders if the “Cheap Western,” i.e. the comic book which appears to be reaching the bottom of the piece, was struck from his hand when he was caught reading it in class, being a big fan of comics at this age, the broken pencil having been cracked over his hand. It’s also, simultaneously, an abstract and a surreal composition. As many have pointed out, it also leaves the center bare. It carries forward his use of the single word, while also taking it on a new tangent.

Bouncing Marbles, Bouncing Apple, Bouncing Olive, 1969, (not in the show) has much in common with Noise, Pencil, Broken Pencil, Cheap Western from six years earlier. One of countless Ed Ruschas that feel surreal to me. Here, he “sugar coats” the surrealism by using harmless objects like marbles and an apple on a welcoming green background. Leaving the olive, the looming black, and the fact that the marbles & apple are bouncing to stir up our imaginations, making the work decidedly not a “still life.” *- Photographer unknown.

Noise, Pencil, Broken Pencil, Cheap Western is another one-Painting revolution, like OOF was. Though both were only followed-up indirectly, as in Bouncing Marbles, Bouncing Apple, Bouncing Olive, 1969. Now, look at this-

Salvador Dali, the legendary Surrealist, Open Field with Ball in Centre and Mountains in Rear, Study for the Disney film Destino, 1946, Oil on masonite. Influence? Seen in MoMA’s catalog for their show Dali & Film.

Works like Noise, Pencil, Broken Pencil, Cheap Western and Bouncing Marbles, Bouncing Apple, Bouncing Olive (and other works that include marbles and olives) are so different from anything that’s come before in his work. Yet, as time went on, they are joined by many works that while they depict recognizable objects are very abstract, even surreal, including his recent Tom Sawyer Paintings. Most of them have no words, and taken as a group they now form a sizable part of his oeuvre. For my part, I trace them all back to Noise, Pencil, Broken Pencil, Cheap Western from 1963.

Large Trademark with Eight Spotlights, 1962, Oil on canvas 66 9/10 x 133 1/10 inches. An early L.A.-inspired work, like most of Ed Ruscha’s work its “meaning” is nebulous. At the time he Painted this, the famous Film studio was in decline and going through layoffs. One reading might be a comment on fleeting fame about to fade out, or like his PhotoBook, Every Building on the Sunset Strip, 1966, possibly a hard realization for the Artist who relocated from Oklahoma City, that glamour is not all it appears to be from afar. It’s also a work that is reminiscent of a speeding, approaching train, a compositional device he would use again. Though it’s described as “Oil on canvas,” those are graphite lines leading to or from the vanishing point.

In 1962, L.A./Hollywood, its sites and culture began appearing in Ed Ruscha’s Art, as in Large Trademark with Eight Spotlights, which is also a precursor to his multi-word and phrase Paintings. Over the succeeding 60+ years, few if any, Artists would become more associated with Los Angeles than Ed Ruscha is and has been. From then to now, he would continue to Paint the city, and words and image would coexist in his Art, while single words largely became multiple words and, beginning in 1973, short phrases that he has continued to create to this day.

By the beginning of the second gallery of Now Then, some of the core themes of his work have been created and have already metamorphosized. This revealed the development of a working process based in an endlessly restless creative drive that would not let Ed Ruscha stay in one place for very long Artistically. What lay ahead over the next six plus decades(!) has been nothing if not the continually unexpected.

Part 2, “Ed Ruscha’s Wall Rockets,” is here. The concluding Part 3, “Ed Ruscha & The Two-Sided Coin of Influence,” is here. 

*-Soundtrack for this piece is “Down the Highway,” by a Musician who has been creating and performing for about as long as Ed Ruscha has: Bob Dylan, born May 24, 1941, 3 1/2 years after Ed Ruscha. Bob released “Down the Highway” the same year Mr. Ruscha created a number of the Paintings in this piece, on 1963’s The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.

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  1. The traveling retrospective, THE WORKS OF ED RUSCHA, came to the Whitney Museum in 1982, one of five museum stops it made, when the Artist was about 45. ↩
  2. ER, Tate, P. 9 ↩
  3. Alexandra Schwartz, Ed Ruscha’s Los Angeles, P.17 ↩
  4. Alexandra Schwartz, Ed Ruscha’s Los Angeles, P.15 ↩
  5. Alexandra Schwartz, Ed Ruscha’s Los Angeles, P.15 ↩
  6. E.R. Tate, P.100 ↩
  7. in her book, Ed Ruscha: Art & Design in the 1960s ↩
  8. Here ↩
  9. Here ↩
  10. I Don’t Want No Retrospective- The Works of Ed Ruscha, P.15 ↩

Sarah Sze: Timelapse- Freeze Frame

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This is Part 2 of my look at Sarah Sze: Timelapse at the Guggenheim Museum. Part 1 is here.

Slice detail with Wright’s Oculus.

As I said in Part 1, there were so many amazing details in Timelapse I decided to devote a separate piece to them. I’m showing 40 as thumbnails. Click on any image for full size. There’s also a short video clip.

…and wonder about Timelapse I continue to…Show posters behind appropriate scaffolding, Seen on 10th Avenue, June 5, 2023.

The hub for the black string.

Following are Photos of details in the 8 Bays on the 6th floor. Please refer to the overall shots of each installation in Part 1 for orientation and where they are installed in each piece.

The following are details from Bay 1, The Night Sky is Dark Despite the Vast Number of Stars in the Universe

Detail of the Hammock in Bay 1. The Hammock over the ground floor pool and the Hammock Sarah Sze created in 2015 had a similar overlay. I believe the material on the floor is part of the installation, and hasn’t fallen through.

Detail of the far left corner of Bay 1, with a shadow from the Hammock and an image from River of Images.

The following are details from Bay 2, Travelers Among Streams and Cascades

Three details from the Painting, Travelers Among Streams and Cascades. This one from the left section…

Detail of the center section…

Detail of the right section.

The following are details from Bay 3, Slice.

Slice. Detail of the front.

Slice. Close up of the front. Shown here are a number of the recurring image “themes”: hands, birds, the Sun, fire, the sky and other aspects of nature.

Detail behind Slice with River of Images.

One of many levels and rulers.

Looking over a rung of a ladder to see the model of Slice in its Bay installed under it displayed next to the final piece.

Throughout Timelapse lamps were used apparently to draw the viewer’s attention to specific images or objects.

The following are details from Bay 4, Diver, Second of two parts and Images That Images Beget

The following are details from Bay 5, Times Zero

Times Zero, 2023.

The following are details from Bay 6, A Certain Slant,

Detail of the center surrounded by images of hands and objects.

Detail of the far right corner looking to the right from the image above. I imagine the salt from those blue containers is what is in the center of the circle.

Detail of part of the installation on the floor further to the right in the previous picture.

The following are details from Bay 7, Last Impression

An alternate, slightly closer view of Bay 5 from what I showed in Part 1. As you can see in the full size image, the empty frames to the right are attached to the strings that run across the gallery.

Some details of the ladder at the right side, front, of the Bay.

The following detail is from Bay 8, Things Caused to Happen (Oculus)

Short clip of Things Caused to Happen (Oculus).

The Artist points out that in the end, the digital images beamed on to Things Caused to Happen (Oculus) break up on the far wall.

*- Soundtrack for this piece is “I’ve Seen It All” by Bjork. This time in the version with Thom Yorke.

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Contemporary Chinese Photography: New Directions

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Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava

Many might not associate China with Artistic freedom and free expression, but a number of Contemporary Chinese Photographers are making their mark, creating work that breaks all sorts of boundaries, and quite a bit of it in stunning fashion. (in) directions: queerness in chinese contemporary photography, up through the end of January at Eli Klein Gallery, long a leader in cutting-edge Contemporary Chinese Art & Photography, is nothing if not an eye-opener. Wonderfully curated by Phil Zheng Cai and Douglas Ray, the show includes the work of Artists not well-known, along with some that are better-known, including Ren Hang (1987-2017) and former East Village resident Tseng Kwong Chi (1950-90).

Walking through the show with Mr. Cai, who is a walking encyclopedia of knowledge on Contemporary Chinese Art, much of that knowledge based in personal experience with the Artists, I was again taken by the freshness on view in virtually every piece. It’s so rare to walk into a Photography show and see very little, or virtually no, influence of Western Photography, save for an image or two that echoed Nan Goldin, (but that’s possibly what I’m bringing to seeing it). At almost every turn, I saw things that were new, fresh, and exciting. Actually? That’s what I’ve come to expect from Contemporary Chinese Art. In 2018, after seeing the landmark Guggenheim Museum overview, I began exploring it for the first time. Shortly after, at Eli Klein’s prior gallery, Klein Sun’s, amazing Cai Dongdong: Photography Autocracy I discovered  the work of Mr. Dongdong, now one of the best known Chinese Photographers. It was a wake-up call to what was going on in Chinese Contemporary Photography, and I wrote an extensive look at the show here.

Of course, (in) directions: queerness in chinese contemporary photography revolves around queerness, which I readily admit to not being an authority on. Whether that interests you or not, there is much to discover and enjoy, particularly the range of styles and creativity on display.

Cai Dongdong’s work never fails to surprise or break new ground. From (in) directions, it seems he’s far from alone in bringing that in Contemporary Chinese Photography. See for yourself-

Leonard Suryajaya, Dead Duck, 2020, Arisan, 2017, Gold Condo Room, 2020, Sparrow, 2023 and Salem, 2014 from left. Archival inkjet prints.

Leonard Suryajaya, Gold Condo Room, 2020.

Tommy Kha, Stops (III) Oneonta, NY, 2020, UV print on vinyl.

Fang Daqi, Untitled (Bream), 2020, Archival pigment print

Tseng Kwong Chi, Washington, D.C., 1982, From the “East Meets West self-portrait series 1979-89,  and Tseng Kwong Chi with mannequins, 1980, From the “Costumes at the Met” series, right. Both Silver gelatin prints.

From left- Shen Wei, Bonsai, 2023, Chromogenic print, Blue Cave, 2023, Mixed media, Pixy Liao, Breast Ass, 2019, Digital C-print, Fang Daqi, Untitled (Bream), Untitled (Butterfly 2) both 2023, Shen Wei, Daises, 2022, Chromogenic print, Pixy Liao, Long Sausage, 2016, Digital C-print.

Zhang Zhidong, Object Lesson (II), 2023, Archival pigment print.

Mengwen Cao, Eddy, 2021, Archival pigment print.

From left, Xu Guanyu, SL-06172015-02112022, 2022, and Illumination, 2014, Zhang Zhidong, Reflection (II), 2023, Lumination, 2022 and Object Lesson (II), 2023, All Archival pigment prints.

Co-curator Phil Zheng Cai with two of his favorites in the show by Tseng Kwong Chi.

My takeaway is that, regardless of where they’re from, their age, orientation or medium, it’s always exciting to see Artists doing something different. Doubly so when it’s well done. Japanese Contemporary Photography has been very well-known in the U.S. for decades now, and some of its leading lights, like Daido Moriyama and Araki, are Art stars around the world. Chinese Photography is nowhere nearly as well-known here. With Artists and work like those on view in (in) directions:, I suspect that is about to change.

BookMarks- Books on Contemporary Chinese Photography are hard to come by here. Cai Dongdong’s 4 PhotoBooks (that I’m aware of) were all printed in small numbers (up to 300 copies each) and have all sold out. However, one new book that is available as I write is (in) directions:, the catalog for this show. It’s an excellent introduction to these Artists, often with texts in their own words, and including quite a few images of work not in the show (along with the work that is). Curators Cai and Ray, along with designer Mengyao Zhang, have done a very nice job of succinctly laying out quite a bit of material in a very accessible manner, producing a valuable upto-the-moment survery on 21 Photographers who deserve wider attention. Copies are available through Eli Klein Gallery.

*-Soundtrack for this piece is “Accept Yourself” by The Smiths from their classic Hatful of Hollow, seen here in a rare live, though grainy, video from the Hacienda, Manchester, on 6 July 1983-

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On Flaco: New York City’s Owl

Written by Kenn Sava. (None of these Photos are mine. If they are yours, please contact me for credit.)

The throng hoping for a Flaco sighting in the Park in the early days after his escape last year. Photo- goodmorningamerica.com

If you live here, and possibly if you don’t, you might be glued to the latest news and social media updates for sightings of Flaco, the male Eurasian Eagle-Owl, who escaped from the Central Park Zoo after his habitat was vandalized in February, 2023. I am, too. In spite of EVERYTHING else going on in the world, it’s a story that seems to have captivated a lot of folks, probably for many reasons.

After early attempts to recapture him were abandoned due to the public outcry, Park Zoo officials opted to let him live as a free bird in the Park. He’s been on his own for 11 months now.

“Yes, I’m cashin’ in this ten-cent life
For another one”*

Shortly after his escape. Photo- goodmorningamerica.com

Of course, he drew immediate and large crowds (as shown up top), including countless Photographers. To date, I haven’t seen any clips of him in flight, where his 6-foot wingspan must be breathtaking to see. Nonetheless, the countless Photos I have seen reveal him to be extraordinarily beautiful, particularly his riveting orange eyes.

“Everywhere around me
I see jealousy and mayhem
Because no men have all their peace of mind
To carry them”*

Photo- newsbrig.com

Ok. I’m biased. My last name means “Owl.” Still, his is a story with wings! People seemed to love the idea of the “caged-bird set free.” I worried. But, as long as he stayed in the Park, he was relatively safe (though another Owl was hit and killed by a truck there) because they don’t feed the rats, a staple of his diet (another reason we love him) poison that could harm him. Then, Flaco suddenly began making trips out of the Park! While this led to more spectacular photo ops, it raised the worry, and the danger, quotient exponentially.

Why did he leave? The Park is as close to “nature” as we have, though it’s all man-made.

New York City’s other Owl. A sighting on the Upper West Side. Photographer unknown.

After living in the confines of the Zoo for 10 years, to suddenly be thrust out into the “wilds” of Manhattan has got to be like being dropped off on another planet would be for us. Like all New Yorkers, and he is certainly one, he’s on his own out here. Somehow, 11 months later, he’s survived on his wits, like many other New Yorkers- this one included.

I never through I’d see a 2 foot tall Owl walking the same streets I do at night, but I’m ready! Let’s hit the town! Photographer unknown.

As more information came to light, the poignancy of it all hit another level. Apparently, Flaco began going further afield searching for a mate.

What could be more human? More universal? Who couldn’t be moved by that?

Being a rare bird- 100,000 to 500,000, total, are believed to exist, and being THIS far from Eurasia, where most of them are, his chances of finding one are not good, to say the least.

Looking for love in the East Village. I’ve been there, man! *Photographer unknown.

When I saw this incredible Photo someone took in the East Village during his sojourn there, I found it heart-breaking. It speaks to me of the extremes he’s gone to. It also speaks to all he’s up against in his search.

“When the joker tried to tell me
I could cut it in this rube town
When he tried to hang that sign on me
I said ‘Take it down'”*

Pounding the pavement, watching out for “the man,” eyes on the prize. Photo- amsterdamnews.com

So, where to with this story?

My read is that the larger public would freak out if the Park tried to recapture Flaco. I wouldn’t. I’d be relieved and I think quite a few others would be, too. The possible bad outcome to this story is too tragic to think about. So, as a passionate Owl lover, myself, I can’t help wonder if an alternative might be for the experts to scour the world’s zoos, forests and jungles for a potential mate for this special Owl. It’s the least we can do for him!

Fatherhood might be the only outcome the larger public would accept.

Then, the lines to see him at The Zoo, would be longer than to see Van Gogh’s Cypresses.

From newyorker.com

And, instead of worrying about him, or listening for the sound of a large Owl landing on my window sill, I can sleep in peace.

“Well I don’t really care
If it’s wrong of if it’s right
But until my ship comes in
I’ll live night by night”*

*Photo by the Central Park Zoo

Happy New Year, brother New Yorker! Hoping you’re safe and wishing you LOVE and every happiness in the New Year!

*-Soundtrack for this piece is “Night By Night” by Steely Dan from their album, Pretzel Logic. The title of this piece is adapted from their song “Brooklyn (Owes the Charmer Under Me)” from Can’t Buy A Thrill. As in somewhere inside me lies a charmer…

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Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

NoteWorthy PhotoBooks, 2023: Nan Goldin: This Will Not End Well

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Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava (*- unless otherwise credited)

The slide projectors showing Nan Goldin’s The Ballad of Sexual Dependency at MoMA in 2016-17. *-MoMA Photo. Click any photo for full size.

“What becomes a legend?” someone used to ask. I wouldn’t know. If the question becomes “Who becomes a legend?,” it seems to me that Nan Goldin is just about there. Having recently being named the Art World’s “Most Influential Figure” in the ArtReview Power 100 on top of the Academy Award Nominated Best Documentary she was the subject of, she’s long been one of the most influential Photographers working today- especially on other Photographers. When I think of all the those I’ve spoken with who named influences, her name surfaced as often as anyone else’s1. Yet, one of her most influential realms and biggest innovations, the Slideshow, has gone largely overlooked historically to this point. In her Slideshows and Films, Nan Goldin presents her work as she wants it seen and experienced.

A sealed copy of the now sold out First Edition with the cover showing a projection.

In 2022, the Artist collaborated with Moderna Museet, Stockholm on a retrospective of her 5 Slideshows and 2 Films titled Nan Goldin: This Will Not End Well, a traveling show that began at Moderna Museet in October, 2022, and will be touring in Europe until it finishes in Milan in 2025. Accompanying the show, Ms. Goldin, the Moderna Museet and Steidl have released a book of the same name, with the Artist commissioning the majority of the 20 texts included in it. Published in October, 2022, copies didn’t show up here until early 2023, then the first edition promptly sold out. A second went into print last month- 13 months after the first, the fastest recent PhotoBook reprint I can think of this side of Petra Collins’s Coming of Age, and a testament to Nan Goldin’s popularity.

“I recommend getting your heart trampled on to anyone
Yeah, oh
I recommend walkin’ around naked in your living room
Yeah”-*

Early posters for what was called Ballads of Sexual Dependency at the time. From Nan Goldin’s collection. Seen at MoMA in March, 2017.

Nan Goldin: This Will Not End Well is a unique PhotoBook in my experience. Of all the PhotoBooks I’ve seen I can’t think of one that is largely drawn from Slideshows (5 of the 7 works included). That’s probably because very few Artists not named William Kentridge, or any Photographers I can think of, have done a body of them. Mr. Kentridge’s largely consist of his remarkable Drawings and, longer or shorter, are more usually considered Films. Between the covers, the book is gripping. The narratives the Slideshows & Films contain range from her childhood and her sister Barbara’s horrific teenage suicide, to hanging out with her friends (many of who are familiar to her fans), and to the nightmare of addiction.

Trixie on the Cot, New York City, 1979, Silver dye bleach print, printed 2008. I can’t tell you how many Photos I’ve seen that seem influenced by this remarkable Photo. A Note about my show photos- Frankly, glare at shows is indicative of choices in glazing (and choices in lighting). All of my pictures taken in shows document what it really looked like, which is less than ideal for any viewer in this case. In my experience, too few galleries and museums use glare-free acrylic, probably due to its extra cost. In fairness, when I took this at MoMA in March, 2017, glare-free acrylic was not as commonly used as it is now. You can also see it better here.

Nan Goldin began using Slideshows shortly after relocating to NYC in 1978. Her first, called Ballads of Sexual Dependency at the time, was included in the legendary Times Square Show, 1980, that was Jean-Michel Basquiat’s first public show, and also included the work of Jane Dickson, among others. It consisted of upwards of 700 Photographs and had a soundtrack. In 1986, the Artist & Aperture Foundation whittled those down to the 127 images published in the now classic PhotoBook of the same name, which was most recently reprinted for the twenty-first time.

The entrance to the show in March, 2017.

In 2016-7 MoMA showed The Ballad of Sexual Dependency Slideshow (which lasts almost 42 minutes), a gallery of Photographic Prints from the series, and ephemera including vintage posters for early presentations of the work (shown above), when it was called Ballads of Sexual Dependency, from Ms. Goldin’s collection. It leads off This Will Not End Well with 60 images, with Steidl’s Press Release saying, “The book retains the presentation of the slide shows by showing all images in the same format on a black background and sequenced as they are in the sources.” I don’t know how many others, besides myself, would have loved to have seem ALL the images of all the Slideshows included in order in the book. That would have been a huge book. What is included is hard to argue with, given the Artist’s involvement. Even though the Slideshows are not complete (with selected stills from the Films included), the book is a remarkable chance to see these works in stop frame, which provides a chance to study the individual Photographs and to study the sequence, which move by quickly on the screen, at least in the sections reproduced.

Nan and Brian in Bed, New York City, 1983, Silver dye bleach print. Nan took this with a remote she’s holding in her hand. Obviously, it became the cover image for the Aperture book, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. Seen at MoMA in March, 2017.

The Other Side (Slideshows, 16:45 in duration), All by Myself (Slideshow, about 6 minutes), Sisters, Saints and Sibyls (Three-channel video, 35 minutes), Fire Leap (Slideshow, about 15 minutes), Scopophilia (about 23 1/2 minutes), Sirens (Single-channel video, 16 minutes), Memory Lost (Slideshow, 24 1/2 minutes), and a final section titled “Missing,” follow. Each one will touch the heart, and linger in the mind indefinitely. This Will Not End Well was not a book I suspect many saw coming. But now that it’s here it earns its place as another excellent book among Nan Goldin’s classic books. Not one of which I’d part with. 

The infamous Heart-Shaped Bruise, 1980, Silver dye bleach print. Seen at MoMA in March, 2017.

“You live, you learn
You love, you learn
You cry, you learn
You lose, you  learn
You bleed, you learn
You scream, you learn”-*

I am not optimistic about how much Photography will be considered “Art” in a few hundred years when all the dust settles. It, and Film, are relatively young mediums, and so, so much Photography has been done. Of that that survives, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to see Nan Goldin’s work make the cut. Such is the power of her work.

The equally infamous Nan One Month After Being Battered, 1984, Silver dye bleach print. Seen at MoMA, March 2017.

Nan Goldin: This Will Not End Well is an Also Recommended NoteWorthy PhotoBook for 2023. The full list is here. 

*-Soundtrack for this piece is “You Learn” by Alan’s Morissette from her masterpiece, Jagged Little Pill, 1995.  I saw Alanis perform it live on her ’95 tour with the great Shirley Manson & Garbage opening! But, seeing her sing it here in São Paulo last month gave me chills. In this inferior quality audience recording (her official video is here), she sounds like she’s almost holding back so she can hear the massive crowd singing her lyrics back to her. WHAT a feeling that must be! I’ve played in front of appreciative crowds, but to see and hear the effect your Music has had on so many people has got to be overwhelming. I imagine Nan Goldin is, also, getting a good deal of love coming back to her from all of those who relate to, and love, her work.

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  1. Like this one, to name one. ↩

Gregory Halpern In NYC

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Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava

Shows seen- Impressions @ Fotografiska, July 20, 2023 and
Immersion: Gregory Halpern, Raymond Meeks and Vasantha Yogananthan @ ICP, through January 8, 2024

Gregory Halpern, right, giving a brief overview of his career to date as an introduction to his work including this well-known image from his PhotoBook,  ZZYZX, with Magnum Photos President, Photographer, and fellow exhibitor, Cristina de Middel, center, and narrator Jessica Nabongo at Impressions @ Fotografiska, July 20, 2023. Click any image for full size.

Two shows featuring the work of Gregory Halpern provided all-too-rare opportunities to see his work here in what were the NYC debuts of both his newest work, and his most recently published work. While familiar to most from his remarkable series of PhotoBooks this past decade as a “book Artist,” the shows provided the chance to see him as a “wall Artist.” Though neither was a Gregory Halpern solo show, they proved revelatory1.

 Immersions installation view

On September 26th, Immersion opened at ICP, where I was last for William Klein: YES. Immersion is the name of a commission program involving an amalgamation of French and American organizations awarding selected Photographers, called laureates, a sponsorship to create a body of work either in France or the US. Gregory Halpern was a laureate in 2018. Raymond Meeks and Vasantha Yogananthan are the other two laureates included in the show. For his part, Mr. Halpern decided to go to Guadeloupe, a former French colony, a daring and somewhat ground-breaking choice (Raymond Meeks chose two regions in France, and Vasantha Yogananthan chose New Orleans).

So, why Guadeloupe?

 Immersions installation view.

“I think I knew I would find a certain form of Surrealism there,” Mr. Halpern explained in an interview with Curator Clément Chéroux2.

The stage set, after research and a number of trips to Guadeloupe to take the Photographs, he undertook the rigorous selecting and arranging process he outlined during a talk when I saw him last at The Strand Bookstore in September, 2019. Aperture published the resulting body of work, indeed perhaps his most surreal, in Let the Sun Beheaded Be (a NighthawkNYC Noteworthy PhotoBook of 2020). In Immersion NYC finally gets to see the work as Photographs.

The show was concise, typically open-ended, and bookended by the Artist’s first foray into Video(!) and a stunning, leaning, Sculpture3. It opens with one of the most compelling images in the book.

Untitled, as all the images are in the book, is described by Mr. Chéroux- “Shot in a former slave prison in the town of Petit-Canal, northwest of Grande-Terre, it shows the tentacular development, right inside the building, of a tree commonly known as a strangler fig because the strength of its wide roots destroys everything on which it grows4.”

Christ Columb, 2023, Marble, cement, stainless steel, wood and cinderblock. An “exact replica of a bust of Christopher Columbus that currently stands in Guadeloupe,” per the wall card. “Exact” in that it even mirrors the vandalism to the real bust’s face.

It serves to define his terms. In these Photos, Mr. Halpen consciously avoided tourist trappings, saying in the book’s conversation with Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa that after seeing how the tourists acted and treated the locals, he realized his burden as another white outsider with a camera would be even heavier, especially because he wasn’t fluent in either French or creole. He chose instead to focus on the stormy history, the place, the human, the animal, and the vernacular, in what are the five unofficial “chapters” of the book.

History/the place, the human…”The tattoo is a replica of the 1848 decree abolishing chattel slavery in Guadeloupe (the second, final abolition, after Napoleon reneged on his 1815 abolition,” from the wall card regarding the work on the right.

Surrealism runs throughout all of them, yet in Let the Sun it’s, perhaps, an overriding mood as much as it is actually on view. Possibly, this is due to the inherent surrealism Mr. Halpern said he was expecting to find, or perhaps it was also due to his reading material during his visits. The title “Let the Sun Beheaded be” comes from Soliel cou coupé (or Solar Throat Slashed) by Martinican poet Aimé Césaire, who was influenced by the concluding lines of “Zone,” the first poem in Guillaume Apolliinaire’s Alcools, 1913, “Adieu Adieu / Soliel cou coupé” (Farewell, farewell / Let the Sun beheaded be). Apolliinaire coined the term “surrealism” circa 1917. Césaire’s earlier work found its way into the hands of André Breton, one of the leading surrealist theorists, and the two became long-time friends. Speaking of Solar Throat Slashed curator Clément Chéroux points out in his essay the numerous connections between the guillotine, which was brought to Guadeloupe with the French after the French Revolution and put to extensive use in the colony, and Photography- down to the “guillotine shutter.” Thankfully, the guillotine shutter is the only use of the notorious device in the work, though death takes many forms.

Stills from Triangulation, 2-channel video(!), duration 4:20.

Yet, after finishing his Photography, he subsequently returned to make a 2-channel Video titled Triangulation, which meditates on the coming and going of the cruise ships and their cargo. The Video, his first to be shown in public, startled me for having a different approach than his Photography does! Whereas he goes to great length to speak with his Photographic subjects, even collaborating with them to an extent in his Photo Portraits, in Triangulation, he’s an observer. Highlighting the risks of this, at one point, staged or not, a cruise ship employee with “Photographer” emblazoned on his shirt, ironically moves towards the camera making a “STOP” signal . The Video added a counterpoint to the show. At once showing that side of Guadeloupe most known to the outside world, but showing it not from the standpoint of the tourists, but almost from the viewpoint of the locals if and when they watch these foreigners arriving & disembarking on their island. 

Appropriately hung near the floor. Seeing it this size created a completely different impression than the image in the book.

Another thing that struck me seeing this work was size. Images have a tendency to live in our minds in the size they appear in in a book. Unlike a Painting or Drawing, we may tend to forget Photographs can be printed larger or smaller. I heard from readers when I named Mr. Halpern’s Omaha Sketchbook a NoteWorthy PhotoBook of 2019 who disagreed, saying they were unhappy with the size of all the images in it- each a reproduction of a Photo cut from a medium format contact sheet, done to remain true to his original mockup- a “sketchbook.” Let the Sun returned to full page images to stunning effect (I happened to love the daring in the design of Omaha and the sizes of the Photos therein). At ICP, the Prints ranged from slightly larger than page size to very large, probably 40 inches or larger. The added real estate enabling the images to begin to attain a “life-size” presence. 

“In Guadeloupe, slavery memorials are everywhere, so the weight of that history is much more perceptible than in the United States.” Gregory Halpern in the Conversation.

In my 2019 overview of his work, “Gregory Halpern’s America,” I wrote about his work’s hold on me. I still can’t think of any other living Photographer whose work speaks to me as much as his continues to. Given that his instant classic book ZZYZX is now in its 4th printing, and his three subsequent books have sold out, I’m apparently far from the only one it speaks to. I went in to Immersions believing that Let the Sun is somewhat underappreciated compared to his U.S. based books (i.e. all of his previous books). I came out feeling I may have underestimated it. Let the Sun is a book that could inspire change on a number of levels- from opening the eyes of people who’ve never been to Guadeloupe (like myself), to increased possibilities for the Photographic Portrait, to publishers who have neglected the Caribbean (& it’s Artists) to this point in Art & PhotoBooks, to the shame that the history of slavery in this country has been so ignored. For those reasons, it’s something of a landmark book in my view.

On the road, again. Gregory Halpern looking for subjects in Oklahoma City as he talks in the voice-over about his Instagram announcement seeking Portrait subjects. Still from a fascinating video short about his week in OKC at Fotografiska, July 20, 2023.

A few weeks earlier, at Fotografiska in the Flatiron on July 20th, Mr. Halpern was joined by 3 Magnum Photos Photographers, of which he is now also a full member, in a show sponsored by a hotel chain titled Impressions. The Photographers were ensconced in separate hotels around the world and asked to document what they experienced. Mr. Halpern went to Oklahoma City, and exhibited 4 Photos (as did each of the others- Cristina de Middel, Jonas Bendiksen, and Alessandra Sanguinetti) in what is the first new work I’ve seen of his since Let the Sun Beheaded Be, 2020.

Here is Mr. Halpern’s presentation-

I find the arrangement particularly interesting. We see animals, a Portrait of a young man in a barber’s cloth, some sort of structure, and a torso bearing a tattoo. Looking at these, yes, Let the Sun came back to me. Each of the four images “represents” one of its unofficial themes- animals, a human, the evidence of the land/history, and another human. The surreal is also represented in all four (at least for me).

It would be easy to say they “harken back” to what we saw in Omaha Sketchbook. That book featured images of masculinity (along with images of animals, the land & history and other themes), like Douglas, Army Jurnior Reserve Officer Training Corps, Bellevue, 2005-18, to cite one example out of many; the young man getting a haircut harkens back to those societal expectations and traditions. Ostensibly, it’s a straight-ahead image of an event that parents are fond of documenting during childhood. Yet, there’s an air of mystery around it. The young man stares at the camera with a somewhat stoic look that gives away little. The barber cloth hiding anything the might tell us more about him. His haircut appears to be finished and he’s ready to face the world again. Yet, I’m reminded of Clément Chéroux’s essay in Let the Sun when he speaks about the guillotine, Guadeloupe, and the mechanics of Photography. He mentions Photographers refer to Portraits as “cutting heads.” Here we see just that twice- once with only the head (in a Print mounted on a red background), and once of a torso sans head. Notice how the Print of the young man is mounted higher than the others- at a height where the young man’s head just about “completes” the Portrait of the tattooed torso on the right.

Detail of the far right Photo, showing the tattoo. Speaking of recurring themes, t’s interesting to contrast this with the very first image in this piece from ZZYZX.

It reminds me of some of the games the Surrealists used were fond of playing, like the one Kerry James Marshall based his recent show on.

Mr. Halpern discussing two other images from his OKC series.

Of course, this is only my reading of it- your results may differ, as Mr. Halpern’s intentions may as well. In the end, I’m lucky I never have to leave NYC to find Surrealism. It finds its way here from all over the world.

*- Soundtrack for this piece is “Captains and Cruise Ships” by Owl City.

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for over 8 years, during which 300 full-length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate to allow me to continue below. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

  1. As far as I know, there has not been a Gregory Halpern solo show in NYC since the auspicious Gregory Halpern: A at Clamp Gallery from January 5th to February 11th, 2012, as hard as that is to believe. If you know of one subsequently, please let me know. ↩
  2. From 2019, per Clément Chéroux, “GH/971” in Let the Sun Beheaded Be. ↩
  3. Which is not his first. He showed Sculpture for the first time earlier this year in Gregory Halpern: 19 Winters/7 Springs at Transformer Station, Cleveland. ↩
  4. ibid ↩