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INVENTORY OF THE EDWARD RUSCHA PHOTOGRAPHS OF SUNSET BOULEVARD AND HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD, 1965-2010
2012.M.1
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Table of contents
Title: Edward Ruscha photographs of Sunset Boulevard and Hollywood Boulevard
Date (inclusive): 1965-2010
Number: 2012.M.1
Creator/Collector:
Ruscha, Edward
Physical Description:
71.6 linear feet
(50 boxes, 1 flat file)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, California, 90049-1688
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: The collection is comprised of material related to Ed Ruscha's photographic documentation of two major Los Angeles thoroughfares:
Sunset Boulevard and Hollywood Boulevard, as well as the projects that resulted from the documentation of the two streets.
Ruscha documented Sunset Boulevard in twelve shoots between 1965 and 2001, and Hollywood Boulevard in four shoots between
1973 and 2004. Finished projects include his fourth photographic art book,
Every Building on the Sunset Strip, 1966; the portfolio
Sunset Strip 1965/1995, and the portfolio and book
Then & Now: Hollywood Boulevard 1973-2004, 2005.
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Language: Collection material is in
English with some
German.
The American artist Edward Joseph Ruscha IV was born in Omaha, Nebraska on December 16, 1937 to Edward Ruscha III, an insurance
auditor, and his wife Dorothy Driscoll Ruscha. He was raised in Oklahoma City where he met his lifelong friends Mason Williams,
Joe Goode, and Jerry McMillan. After graduation from high school he drove to California with Mason Williams to attend Chouinard
Art Institute (now California Institute of the Arts). Robert Irwin and Emerson Woelffer were among the teachers who would
have an especially strong influence on him.
Ruscha graduated from Chouinard in 1960 and in 1961 made his first trip to Europe, traveling with his mother and older sister
Shelby by car for seven months. The numerous travel images he took with his Yashika camera that include storefronts, window
displays, and billboards, as well as the perhaps more typical images of people they met on their journey, thematically and
stylistically prefigure the photographs he was soon to take for his early artist's books such as
Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1963) and
Some Los Angeles Apartments (1965).
A visit to New York on his way back to California opened Ruscha's eyes to Pop Art, and the work he subsequently created was
included in
New Painting of Common Objects, the first exhibition of Pop Art, curated by Walter Hopps at the Pasadena Art Museum in 1962. The following year Hopps gave
Ruscha his first solo show at Ferus Gallery. Informed by Pop Art and the distinctive billboard culture of Los Angeles, Ruscha
went on to become a pivitol presence in the West Coast and Conceptual art scenes.
Although much of Ruscha's work is informed by or uses photography as its point of departure, he sees himself not as a photographer
but as someone who uses the medium of photography as part of his larger artistic practice. His early photographic artist's
books, many of which further distill the quotidian elements of the Los Angeles cityscape - parking lots, urban streets, and
apartment buildings - into serial imagery, have fundamentally altered the genre of the artist's book through their use of
photography and commercial production methods. Yet in a discussion of his artist's books with Silvia Wolf, Ruscha noted, "My
use of the camera is still a tool to make a picture...At the time I was into making pictures that happened to be photographs,
rather than making 'photographs' ("Nostalgia and New Editions; A Converstion with Ed Ruscha," in
Ed Ruscha and Photography, 2004, p. 257).
Known for the drawings and paintings of words and phrases that he began making in the 1960s, as well as for his artist's books,
Ruscha is one of the pre-eminent artists of his generation. He has exhibited widely in the United States and abroad. His first
international exhibition was in Cologne at Galerie Rudolf Zwirner in 1968. A few years later he began showing at Leo Castelli
Gallery in New York, and his first retrospective was held at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1982. He is currently
represented by Gagosian Gallery (Los Angeles and New York).
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Contact
Library Reproductions and Permissions .
Edward Ruscha photographs of Sunset Boulevard and Hollywood Boulevard, 1965-2010, Getty Research Institute, Research Library,
Accession no. 2012.M.1.
Acquired in 2012.
Processed by Beth Ann Guynn and Linda Kleiger in 2012.
The Getty Research Library also holds the Edward Ruscha Photographs of Los Angeles Streets collection, Special Collection
accession number 2012.M.2.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection is comprised of material related to Ed Ruscha's photographic documentation of two major Los Angeles thoroughfares:
Sunset Boulevard and Hollywood Boulevard, as well as materials pertaining to the projects that resulted from the documentation
of the two streets.
Ruscha documented Sunset Boulevard in twelve shoots between 1965 and 2001 using a motorized camera mounted on a tripod in
the bed of his pickup truck. The shoots covered the twenty-five mile length of Sunset Boulevard and included both sides of
the street. In 1966 Ruscha self-published his fourth photographic art book, the iconic
Every Building on the Sunset Strip, which reproduced the images from his 1966 shoot. He reworked six of the original 1966 images for his portfolio
Sunset Strip 1965/1995, produced with the art dealer and gallerist Patrick Painter in 1995.
Series I: Sunset Boulevard, contains the original negatives and contact sheets from the 1966, 1976, and 1998 shoots; the original
film rolls from the seven shoots made between 1973 and 1997 (excluding 1976); the videotapes that represent the 2000 and 2001
shoots; and corresponding documentation. It also contains the production materials for
Every Building on the Sunset Strip and the 1995 portfolio. Materials pertaining to the book span from early test materials, such as Jerry McMillan's 1965 preliminary
contact prints and mock-ups, to the finished book. Included are Ruscha's mock-ups and maquettes, proofs, press pulls, and
proof and final copies of the book, and a record book containing lists of expenses for shooting and printing and lists of
books both gifted and sold. The later portfolio is represented by negatives and prints used for selecting the final images
or test shots, "scratched" (i.e. altered) negatives and prints, and a small amount of documentation pertaining to the project.
Series II: Hollywood Boulevard, contains materials resulting from Ruscha's documentation of that thoroughfare between 1973
and 2004. The four shoots (1973, 2002, 2003, and 2004) covered twelve miles and included both sides of the street. Included
are the original 1973 still images and the later images shot on still film and video, as well as documentation pertaining
to the original shoot.
In 2005 the German publisher and master printer, Gerhard Steidl, published
Then & Now: Hollywood Boulevard 1973-2004, in both a limited edition portfolio and as a trade book. In these works Ruscha's original 1973 images run parallel to their
2004 versions, recording the changes that had occurred to the thoroughfare over three decades. As with
Every Building on the Sunset Strip the images of the north side of the boulevard run along the top of the sheet or page, while those of the south side of the
boulevard run inverted along its bottom.
Also included in Series II are the production materials for the project, ranging from index prints, initial layouts, proof
sheets, and dummies, to examples of the final products. Documentation includes maps, street name and numbering systems, image
sequence lists, and memos on working and production procedures.
The collection is comprised of two series:
Series I: Sunset Boulevard, 1965-2010, undated;
Series II: Hollywood Boulevard, 1973-2005, undated.
Streets--United States--Los Angeles
Hollywood Boulevard (Los Angeles, Calif.)--Description and travel
Los Angeles (Calif.)--Description and travel
Sunset Boulevard (Los Angeles, Calif.)--Description and travel
Artists books--California--Los Angeles--20th century
Black-and white negatives--California--Los Angeles--21st century
Black-and-white negatives--California--Los Angeles--20th century
Compact discs--California--Los Angeles--21st century
Contact prints--California--Los Angeles--20th century
Contact prints--California--Los Angeles--21st century
Contact sheets--California--Los Angeles--20th century
Contact sheets--California--Los Angeles--21st century
Dummies (printed matter)--California--Los Angeles--20th century
DVDs--California--Los Angeles--21st century
DVDs--United States--Los Angeles--21st century
Videotapes--California--Los Angeles--21st century
Videotapes--United States--Los Angeles--21st century
McMillan, Jerry, 1936-
Patrick Painter Inc.
Steidl, Gerhard, 1950-