Ed Ruscha's "Extremes and In-betweens" series, exhibited at Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill, London, from October 5 to December 17, 2016, is a compelling exploration of language, scale, and perspective through the medium of painting. This series encapsulates Ruscha's ongoing fascination with the interplay between words and their meanings, employing a dynamic range of scale and tone to reflect on the relation of macrocosm to microcosm.
One of the notable works in this series, "Universe With Wrinkles," showcases a descending scale of locations from the cosmic ("UNIVERSE") to the exceedingly specific ("TOP LEFT DRESSER DRAWER"), with each step becoming progressively less readable, thereby engaging with themes of visibility and scale. Another work, "Galaxy, U.S.A., Dot," arranges spatial concepts in a diminishing progression, reminiscent of a vision test card, to play with the viewer's perception and the relativity of scale (Gagosian).
Ruscha's use of a "Boy Scout utility modern" typeface, designed by himself and employed in his iconic Mountain paintings, is evident in these works, further bridging his exploration of text as both subject and object. The series also features a set of paintings that revisit Ruscha's recurring mountain motif, first introduced in the 1990s, where blushing mountain peaks appear centered on each canvas, framed in a manner akin to a cinematic aperture, and accompanied by relational word groups (e.g., All Some None) that echo the conceptual vanishing points presented in the word paintings (Gagosian).
This body of work stands as a continuation of Ruscha's more than five-decade-long investigation into the signs and symbols of American vernacular, distilling them into typographic and cinematic codes that navigate the ambiguity inherent in the interplay between language and the concepts it signifies. Despite their rootedness in the observable American reality, Ruscha's artworks communicate broader concerns about the world's appearance, feel, and our ephemeral existence within it (GalleriesNow).
Ruscha, born in 1937 in Omaha, Nebraska, has been a pivotal figure in contemporary art, with his work spanning painting, drawing, photography, and bookmaking. His solo exhibitions have traversed the globe, showcasing his unique ability to merge textual and visual elements to engage with the landscape of American culture and its linguistic idiosyncrasies. The "Extremes and In-betweens" series encapsulates this enduring inquiry, presenting viewers with a meditative space to reflect on the intersections of language, scale, and meaning (GalleriesNow).