F House

From his earliest experiences as a sign painter, Ed Ruscha developed an abiding interest in the visual and conceptual tensions between text and image. In the late 1980s, he produced a succession of airbrush paintings featuring nocturnal, silhouetted images derived from photographs. F House can be seen as an exploration of the relationship between photography and painting; the block-style letter F that floats on the house may even allude to the f-stop on a camera. The superimposition of the red motif over the house could also imply surveillance by means of a telescopic lens, or perhaps even the scope of a gun. Suggesting intrusive examination and potential harm, the image evokes scenes from Hollywood suspense thrillers and infuses a vision of middle-class prosperity unsettling, perhaps malevolent, overtones.