Ed Ruscha

Pop artist Ed Ruscha was born in Nebraska and moved to Los Angeles in 1956 to study at the Chouinard Art Institute with the intention of becoming a commercial artist. Quickly recognized in the 1960s as an important representative of the thriving Pop Art movement and a successor of the Beat Generation for his collages and text-based pieces, Ruscha exhibited his work at the Ferus Gallery, the Leo Castelli Gallery, and Gagosian Gallery. As a painter, drawer, and filmmaker, Ruscha has been heavily influenced by the city of Los Angeles and by his initial interest in graphic arts. As Ruscha incorporates text and urban as well as Western landscapes into his work, he comments on myths of American Romanticism, commercial culture, and urban life with humour and irony. He sometimes uses unusual media in his work, including fruit and vegetable juices, blood, gunpowder, and grass stains, which is seen in works such as his Stains series. In the 1980s, his style became more mystical, as he worked with rays of light, constellations, and other celestial themes. Ruscha is best known for his witty and enigmatic use of text in his paintings, which he continues to incorporate into his works today. He has held several retrospectives in New York; Washington, DC; London; Paris; and Munich and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2001.

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Prints I wish I had published

11 January - 9 February 2019

In 1969 Bernard Jacobson opened his first London gallery – a fourth-floor walk-up on Mount Street, Mayfair, dealing in prints by international stars, including Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg, as well as publishing prints by leading British artists including Malcolm Morley and Robyn Denny. Printmaking fit the radical, pop sensibility of the time, and Jacobson was part of that heady explosion of interest in the medium. As the gallery approaches its half century in 2019, it is fitting that this landmark year opens with an ambitious two-part exhibition exploring Jacobson's personal and abiding love of prints and some of the remarkable works published by the gallery during an eventful 50 years in the business.

Prints I published

12 February - 9 March 2019

In 1969 Bernard Jacobson began his career as an art dealer, selling and publishing prints by important contemporary artists from a small fourth-floor gallery in London’s Mayfair. For a gallery founded on printmaking and which continues to stage major print shows by artists including Matisse and Motherwell, what better way could there be to celebrate this half century than a two-part exhibition devoted to printmaking?