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Santa Monica Blvd. from Roxbury to Wilshire Blvd.

A work made of gelatin silver print, from "parking lots".
© 2010 Ed Ruscha.

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  • A work made of gelatin silver print, from "parking lots".

Date:

1967

Artist:

Ed Ruscha
American, born 1937

About this artwork

In a series of books made in the 1960s, Ed Ruscha produced deadpan visual lists that he called “a collection of ‘facts.’” This photograph was included in his 1967 book Thirtyfour Parking Lots in Los Angeles, for which he hired photographer Art Alanis to take pictures from a helicopter above downtown Los Angeles on a quiet Sunday morning. Although Ruscha instructed Alanis on which sites to shoot, he later said, “Those patterns and their abstract design quality mean nothing to me. I’ll tell you what is more interesting: the oil dropping on the ground.” Oil droppings reveal the desirability of certain parking locations in a city whose lifeblood is the car, thus offering a kind of sociological map of behavior patterns in Southern California.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Ed Ruscha

Title

Santa Monica Blvd. from Roxbury to Wilshire Blvd.

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1967

Medium

Gelatin silver print, from "Parking Lots"

Inscriptions

Unmarked recto; inscribed verso, upper left, in graphite: ""SANTA MONICA BLVD. FROM ROXBURY TO WILSHIRE BLVD.""; signed and inscribed verso, center, in graphite: "Ed Ruscha 1967"; verso, lower left, in graphite: "PH.67.ER/G-5.C (DETAIL) REPRO #31 OF 31 IN BOOK"

Dimensions

Image: 13.5 × 33.8 cm (5 3/8 × 13 5/16 in.); Paper: 14.1 × 35.4 cm (5 9/16 × 13 15/16 in.)

Credit Line

Purchased with funds provided by the Comer Foundation

Reference Number

2010.507

Copyright

© 2010 Ed Ruscha.

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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