Detail of Evil by Ed Ruscha, screenprint on wood veneer, 1973, 19 7/8 x 30 1/8 , featured in Ed Ruscha: OKLA, running Feb. 18 to July 5, 2021 at Oklahoma Contemporary (Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian)
If Ed Ruscha s name is unfamiliar, you re in extensive company. Since 2015, Google searches for obsolete mimeographs have outpaced those for the Catholic-born octogenarian, whom museums practically venerate, from the London Tate to Los Angeles Broad. For those who extol price tags, a 1964 Ruscha oil painting sold in Nov. 2019 for nearly $52.5 million.
If you ve reached the Museum of Modern Art s 404 error page, you ve seen Ruscha s OOF (1962) blocky, yellow letters against a deep blue field. Everyone understands the word oof, though it s nonsensical, according to independent scholar and curator Alexandra Schwartz, who finds the work amusing. It sums up how he takes verbal language and turns it into something visual in a way that you don t expect, sh