The deadpan precision of Ed Ruschas L.A. sensibility.
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The urge not only to know but to catalogue and record runs deep in our species.
It is a form of completionism.
InEvery Building,we see every bit.
I wonder that still.
You feel like the only person on earth when you look at it.
The idea ofEvery Building on Lexington Avenuedoesnt cut it.
See the most controversial painting to be shown in Los Angeles in our time.
The movie-marquee provocation sensational, ridiculous, exciting is what we used to callshow business.
A fire rages in the main building, its flames licking the edge of the painting.
Even though there had been riots in Los Angeles by then, this doesnt feel like the message.
Nor is any beef Ruscha might have had with the museum.
He once remarked, perhaps a little slyly, I didnt dislike the art museum …
I had no grudges.
Its just a picture to look at.
Finally, there are Ruschas word paintings.
My favorites of these, however, are from the 1990s and have no words in them at all.
