Stains
Ruscha, Ed
Hollywood. Heavy Industry Publications. 1969
An excellent example of Ed Ruscha's beautiful conception, the scarce, literal and reductive portfolio multiple 'Stains'.
From the edition limited to 70 copies each signed and numbered by Ruscha in blue ink; 2 artist proof and 3 'donor' copies were also printed.
For 'Stains' - the title and concept are literal - Ed Ruscha made use of 76 varied materials to create 76 individual stains on 75 sheets and the lining of the portfolio itself. Each of the materials used is listed together with - where applicable - the manufacturer. The range covers the clear, the opaque, the sticky and the corrosive and we find everything from 'Los Angeles Tap Water' (no. 1) and 'Witch hazel (Borbro distilled)' (no. 4) to 'Molasses (Brer Rabbit)' (no. 74) and 'Cinnamon Oil (Magnus, Mabee & Reynard)' (no. 75) via 'Wine (Chateau Latour 1962)' (no. 29), 'Coca Cola' (no. 40), 'Oil Paint (Bellini Cad. Yellow Deep)' (no. 51) and 'Coffee (Yuban)' (no. 63); the final stain, dripped on to the rear silk lining of the box itself is Ruscha's own blood ('Blood of the Artist').
'The activities of Ruscha's infant son may perhaps have awakened the artist to the possibility of using organic substances as agents for imagery. In the year following his son's birth, Ruscha produced Stains, a series of loose pages that he stained with random blobs of such foodstuffs as egg yolk, cabbage, and milk, plus other substances a baby is not normally involved with, such as India ink and nail polish.' (Clive Phillpot).
'Ruscha once remarked that of the many patterns in his 1967 book Thirtyfour Parking Lots in Los Angeles, the most interesting to him were those formed by 'the oil droppings on the ground'. The notion of spilled liquids begun in the paintings and prints of the late 1960s had become something that the artist felt he could take a step further ... he produced a work in which sheets of paper were actually stained with spots of various organic and inorganic substances, grouped in a luxuriously bound and imprinted faux leather box, and sold as an edition. Though Stains was released through Ruscha's imprint, Heavy Industry Publications, it is more akin to a portfolio of drawings than it is to a book, and has a distinctly different sensibility ... Stains was published as loose leaves of quality paper in a signed and numbered limited edition of seventy. The black box in which the stained sheets were housed was stamped in silver in a black-letter typeface reminiscent of a motel Bible, imbuing the portfolio with the feel of a sacred relic, or as Ruscha has said, a coffin.' (Siri Engberg).
[Engberg & Phillpot B9; see Siri Engberg's 'Out of Print', pg. 26 and Clive Phillpot's 'Sixteen Books and Then Some ', pg. 71].
From the edition limited to 70 copies each signed and numbered by Ruscha in blue ink; 2 artist proof and 3 'donor' copies were also printed.
For 'Stains' - the title and concept are literal - Ed Ruscha made use of 76 varied materials to create 76 individual stains on 75 sheets and the lining of the portfolio itself. Each of the materials used is listed together with - where applicable - the manufacturer. The range covers the clear, the opaque, the sticky and the corrosive and we find everything from 'Los Angeles Tap Water' (no. 1) and 'Witch hazel (Borbro distilled)' (no. 4) to 'Molasses (Brer Rabbit)' (no. 74) and 'Cinnamon Oil (Magnus, Mabee & Reynard)' (no. 75) via 'Wine (Chateau Latour 1962)' (no. 29), 'Coca Cola' (no. 40), 'Oil Paint (Bellini Cad. Yellow Deep)' (no. 51) and 'Coffee (Yuban)' (no. 63); the final stain, dripped on to the rear silk lining of the box itself is Ruscha's own blood ('Blood of the Artist').
'The activities of Ruscha's infant son may perhaps have awakened the artist to the possibility of using organic substances as agents for imagery. In the year following his son's birth, Ruscha produced Stains, a series of loose pages that he stained with random blobs of such foodstuffs as egg yolk, cabbage, and milk, plus other substances a baby is not normally involved with, such as India ink and nail polish.' (Clive Phillpot).
'Ruscha once remarked that of the many patterns in his 1967 book Thirtyfour Parking Lots in Los Angeles, the most interesting to him were those formed by 'the oil droppings on the ground'. The notion of spilled liquids begun in the paintings and prints of the late 1960s had become something that the artist felt he could take a step further ... he produced a work in which sheets of paper were actually stained with spots of various organic and inorganic substances, grouped in a luxuriously bound and imprinted faux leather box, and sold as an edition. Though Stains was released through Ruscha's imprint, Heavy Industry Publications, it is more akin to a portfolio of drawings than it is to a book, and has a distinctly different sensibility ... Stains was published as loose leaves of quality paper in a signed and numbered limited edition of seventy. The black box in which the stained sheets were housed was stamped in silver in a black-letter typeface reminiscent of a motel Bible, imbuing the portfolio with the feel of a sacred relic, or as Ruscha has said, a coffin.' (Siri Engberg).
[Engberg & Phillpot B9; see Siri Engberg's 'Out of Print', pg. 26 and Clive Phillpot's 'Sixteen Books and Then Some ', pg. 71].
[78 leaves]. Square 4to. (318 x 290 mm). Leaf of thick card with title, leaf with numbered list of materials used, leaf with justification signed by Ruscha and 75 leaves each with a single stain and each stamp-numbered at lower right, all on Eagle Coupon Bond 100% cotton paper, the final stain ('Blood of the Artist') to the white silk moiré fabric lining of the original box; sheet size: 300 x 274 mm. Loose as issued in black faux-leather clamshell box, embossed title in silver to front cover and spine.
#47920
