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City

A blue canvas with the word "City" written at the center with the viscous quality of water. The background darkens along a gradient towards the top. The lower right corner is green.
© 1968 Ed Ruscha.

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  • A blue canvas with the word "City" written at the center with the viscous quality of water. The background darkens along a gradient towards the top. The lower right corner is green.

Date:

1968

Artist:

Ed Ruscha
American, born 1937

About this artwork

From his earliest experiences as a sign painter, Ed Ruscha retained an interest in the visual and conceptual tensions between text and image. By the late 1960s, the artist began using pointed, single words— chosen as much for their evocative power as for their phonetic qualities—as visual subjects in a variety of media. Between 1966 and 1969, Ruscha made a series of “liquid” or “wet” word paintings, in which the linguistic effect is made more palpable by the trompe l’oeil renderings of the words, which suggest that they have been created from water, oil, syrup, or another fluid.

Status

On loan

Department

Contemporary Art

Artist

Ed Ruscha

Title

City

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.

1968

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

139.7 × 121.9 cm (55 × 48 in.)

Credit Line

Twentieth-Century Purchase Fund

Reference Number

1969.722

Copyright

© 1968 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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