Smaller Dish

Against the cool rich blue field, Edward Ruscha's overlapping ellipses resemble a bright white halo. The drawing was initially inspired by the circular space of a rotunda in a public library, for which the artist was commissioned to produce a mural. The mural was to contain a quotation from Hamlet-"Words without thoughts never to heaven go"-a reference that explains the double rings' celestial resonance. In the process of exploring the rotunda's shape on paper, Ruscha transformed it into a cup-and-saucer, an empty dog bowl, and the present small dish.