March 14, 2016
“Ed Ruscha: Mountain Prints”
April 6–May 28, 2016
Opening reception: Tuesday, April 5, 6–8pm
Gagosian Gallery
19 Place de Longemalle
1204 Geneva
I had a notion to make pictures by using words and presenting them in some way and it seemed like a mountain was an archetypal stage set. It was a perfect foil for whatever was happening in the foreground.
—Ed Ruscha
Gagosian Geneva is pleased to present the first exhibition exclusively devoted to Ed Ruscha's Mountain Prints.
More than ten years after the original motif appeared in the distinctive Mountain paintings, Ruscha began producing complementary prints in 2010. “Mountain Prints” comprises color trial, separation, and cancellation proofs, as well as numbered editions from the limited-edition series; it is a rare opportunity to witness Ruscha's processual experiments in the print medium.
While attending Chouinard Art Institute (now CalArts) in 1958, Ruscha began an apprenticeship with Saul Marks at Plantin Press in Los Angeles, summoned to the print medium by a desire for experimental collaboration and a commitment to reproducibility. Since 1960, screenprints, lithographs, and etchings have been a key part of his oeuvre. After a collaboration over many decades, Ruscha established Hamilton Press with Tamarind master printer Ed Hamilton in 1990 to focus on traditional lithography. Mountain Prints suggests the ways in which the open exchange of skills and insights has impacted his punchy compositions.
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