Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
University College London : A - History of Art
Moth Man: Ruscha's Light and Dark
Contribution and context: This essay introduces the fourth volume of Ruscha’s catalogue raisonnée, edited by Robert Dean, which focuses on the paintings from the late 1980s-mid 90s (Previous volumes have single essays by Vol 1. Yve Alain Bois, Volume 2 Peter Wollen, Volume 3 Robert Dean). The other (short) text included in Volume 4 consists of a work by the artist Mel Bochner ‘remixing’ some of Ruscha’s statements.
Research imperatives and process: In the first detailed account of Ruscha’s achromatic paintings, Fer draws on literary sources, especially Kafka, to think about the significance of the nocturnal image. Deploying notions of light and dark as culturally (and cinematically) saturated as well as formal aspects of painting, the essay makes a case for Ruscha as an artist concerned with an archeology of vision.
