Ed Ruscha, Brave Man’s Porch, 1996. Estimate $4,000,000–6,000,000.
Theatrical in its scale and breathtaking in its expertly executed
sfumato, Ed Ruscha’s
168开奖官方开奖网站查询:Brave Man’s Porch
reverberates with a dynamic energy utterly unique to the artist’s peerless style in which image, symbol and text coexist in sometimes tensile relationships. Throughout his singular career, Ruscha has explored semiotics and employed various artistic techniques to address how words and symbols carry meaning when juxtaposed with image.
Brave Man’s Porch presents the silhouette of a portico, rendered in a rich black tone, against the backdrop of a vaporous light gray and blue sky. The hazy shade of dusky blue commingles with the edges of the black paint, creating a gauzy twilit aura, cinematic in its graininess. Onto this impalpable atmosphere, Ruscha has stenciled the words “Brave men run in my family” in crisp white paint, a stark contrast to the moodiness of the landscape. The size of the text diminishes towards the end of the sentence and bottom of the canvas, prompting the viewer to draw nearer in order to make out the last words.
168开奖官方开奖网站查询:Contemporary Art Evening Auction
16 November | New York