collection spotlight
Ed Ruscha - Sea of Desire, 1983
Collaboration with Jim Ganzer
Etching and aquatint on Rives BFK paper
22-1/2 x 30 in.
Edition of 40
3.996.1984
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| Ed Ruscha, Sea of Desire, 1983, Collaboration
with Jim Ganzer, etching and aquatint on Rives BFK paper, 22-1/2 x
30 in., de Saisset Museum permanent collection, Gift of Dr. Robert
J. Prentice, '48, 3.996.1984.] higher-resolution image |
Since the late 1960s, internationally recognized artist Ed Ruscha has been producing works that reflect his love of language. Consisting of solitary words or those paired with images, these works are at once playful and suggestive, sometimes disturbing, and always compelling.
Sea of Desire not only provides a wonderful example of Ruscha’s interest in language but also another pursuit that has occupied him throughout his career: printmaking. Ruscha began making informal prints in the late 1950s and created his first published print in 1962. He has continued to work in the medium, producing a body of work that now consists of approximately 300 prints. Ruscha is an incredibly innovative printmaker who has experimented with a wide variety of materials — including chocolate and blood — in his printed editions.
| "I love the idea of a word becoming a picture, almost leaving its body, then coming back and becoming a word again." |
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In Sea of Desire, the title of the piece is depicted in geometric block capital letters that run diagonally down the composition. A placid sea composed of horizontal lines bisects the print, which is bathed in a beautiful greenish blue. As is typical with some of Ruscha’s works, Sea of Desire includes a dramatic and somewhat discordant juxtaposition of text and image. Here, the words themselves suggest a tumultuous, passionate body of water. But Ruscha thwarts our expectations of what the accompanying image should look like by depicting his background as a calm expanse of water. The effect is ironic, adding an element of sly humor to this seemingly "serious" print.
Ed Ruscha was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1937 and was raised in Oklahoma City. When he was 18 years old, he left for Los Angeles to go to art school and has lived there ever since. His work is often viewed as inextricably linked to the Los Angeles landscape in which he lives and works—steeped in the gas stations, strip malls, and apartment complexes that saturate the city. Sea of Desire is the only Ed Ruscha work in the de Saisset’s permanent collection and was acquired through a generous gift from Dr. Robert J. Prentice.