This event on Feb 4, 2025 is free but requires tickets.
At the start of his artistic career, Ed Ruscha called himself an “abstract artist … who deals with subject matter.” Abandoning academic connotations that came to be associated with Abstract Expressionism, he looked instead to tropes of advertising and brought words—as form, symbol, and material—to the forefront of painting. Working in diverse media with humor and wit, he oscillates between sign and substance, locating the sublime in landscapes both natural and artificial.
Ruscha was born on December 16, 1937, in Omaha, Nebraska. His family moved to Oklahoma City in 1941. In 1956, Ruscha moved to Los Angeles, where he attended Chouinard Art Institute, from which he graduated in 1960.
Ruscha’s early paintings attracted notice as part of the Pop art movement of the 1960s; his art also has antecedents in Dada, Surrealism, and Abstract Expressionism, and would be central to Conceptual art. His work includes paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, artist’s books, and films, and is in the collections of major national and international museums including LACMA. Ruscha lives and works in Los Angeles.
Oxy Live is a series of conversations with a diverse lineup of cultural luminaries at the forefront of their fields for thought-provoking discussions hosted by acclaimed cultural interlocutor, Paul Holdengräber. All conversations are open to the public at no cost, creating a space for diverse communities to join in the conversation and explore ideas together.
This event is presented in collaboration with Getty PST ART: Art & Science Collide, and The Oxy Live series is funded through the generous support of Occidental trustee and alumna, Lisa Coscino ’85 and the Occidental Class of ’74.
