Cotton Puffs, Q-Tips, Smoke and Mirrors : The Drawings of Ed Ruscha

Ed Ruscha (b. 1937) is among the most popular American artists working today. His evocations of commonplace subjects have earned him a reputation as a Pop artist, while his interest in language and typography has aligned him with Conceptual art. This book, published to accompany Ruscha’s first museum retrospective of drawings, showcases his singular vision and his wide range of highly personal mediums and techniques, from pastels and gunpowder to blood, coffee, and tobacco stains. Ruscha’s work includes paintings, photographs, prints, books, and films, but his unique works on paper are perhaps his richest vein. Through his interpretations of cultural icons and vernacular subjects such as the Hollywood sign, trademarks, and gas stations, as well as his renderings of words and phrases in countless stylistic variations, Ruscha proposes a modern landscape based on keen observation and wry humor.

Margit Rowell has been a curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, the Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Cornelia H. Butler is a curator at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.