Schrafft's Hollywood Study
Ed Ruscha
1967
- Medium
- Blue ballpoint pen and graphite on textured off-white wove paper placemat (discolored to light yellow), with off-set lithography in yellowish brown metal ink
- Dimensions
- 20.3 × 30.7 cm (8 × 12 1/8 in.)
- Genre
- ball-point pen
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Tags
ball-point penpen and ink drawingsprints and drawingpaperpaper (fiber product)
About
As with many of Ruscha’s motifs, around 1967 he took artistic ownership of the Hollywood sign, using it in a wide variety of media and compositions. Here he has dashed off two studies of the iconic sign, presumably while drinking a cup of coffee at Schrafft’s Restaurant (stains from a cup are visible at center). As with many of his word images, his conception of the sign echoes that of his famous 1962 photograph of a Standard Oil station, seen in three-quarter view with one-point perspective diminishing to the left.
