The ever-cool Ed Ruscha (century, paintings, artist, work)

[Cida]

Ed Ruscha Still Has Plenty More to Say About America
In his cavernous California studio, the 80-year-old Pop pioneer and Conceptualist master explains how his genius comes to life
By Mark Ruzzo


“Cool,” after all, is the adjective that has attached itself most tenaciously to the artist and his work, which, over a 60-year arc...

Ruscha—pronounced “rew-shay,” to quote the business card he once passed around—has been a Pop-art wunderkind, thanks to his eye-grabbing, early 60s word paintings, such as Oof and Boss, along with his iconic depictions of filling stations and the Hollywood sign. He has been a wily conceptualist as well, known for his poker-faced photo books, like Twentysix Gasoline Stations and Thirtyfour Parking Lots in Los Angeles. He is a godfather of both of those art movements, arguably the two most important in the last half-century, which is no small thing. He may be the only artist who can claim that. Ruscha has also been considered a minimalist, a surrealist, and a neo-Dadaist, sometimes all at once.

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/201...-about-america

[banjomike]

A cool old guy in a town where cool is still cool. A good place for him to be in.
His old pal Mason Williams is pretty cool, too.