Ed Ruscha produced this etching with Crown Point Press in 2023. The pictured phrase emerges from an amorphous brown background that the artist would describe as one of his “anonymous backdrops for the drama of words.” Stenciled in Boy Scout Utility Modern—the squared-off, all-capital typeface Ruscha designed in the early 1980s—it exemplifies the paradox and whimsy that distinguish his use of language. While alliteration and the depiction of two eight-letter, three-syllable words lend cohesion to the unlikely pairing, the connotation of durability in the first term contrasts with the implication of change in the second, and the viewer is left to ponder what, exactly, a “castiron calendar” might be.
Since the 1960s, Ruscha has created a distinctive and ever-expanding lexicon of signs, symbols, images, and words drawn from vernacular America. His visual utterances, sounds, and concepts—such as the roadside gas station or the word “OOF”—have become embedded in the American ethos. He has presented recurring images—the American flag, mountains, books, and words—that are suggestive yet never didactic, and the development of these images over the course of his illustrious career exemplifies the wry refinement and subtlety with which he speaks through painting.
Ed Ruscha was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and lives and works in Los Angeles. His work is collected by museums worldwide. His first comprehensive, cross-media retrospective in over 20 years, ED RUSCHA / NOW THEN was presented by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2024 and The Museum of Modern Art, New York in 2023. Notable exhibitions include: Standard, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; In Focus: Ed Ruscha, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; 13th Biennale de Lyon, France in 2015; and OKLA, Oklahoma Contemporary, Oklahoma City.
[excerpted from Gagosian website: gagosian.com]