Ed Ruscha
American, b. 1937

Kansas / Oklahoma, 1978
Color lithograph

 

This print captures Ruscha’s playful interpretation of the Southern Plains landscape, known for its flatness as well as its hazy sunsets.
Ruscha, who grew up in Oklahoma City, left for Los Angeles in 1956, driving west on Route 66. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he would make this trip several times a year and found that the empty, flat countryside gave him a unique spatial perspective, like that of a Cinemascope movie theater screen.

Courtesy of the Artist

Visual Description: This is a print that measures roughly 2 feet by 3 ½ feet. In the center is a long rectangle filled with a depiction of flat countryside that extends almost to the edges of the paper. At the top of the rectangle are smudged areas of canary yellow and light gray. At the bottom of the rectangle is a strong, dark gray rectangular base, representing a horizon line. Above the horizon line are the words “Kansas” and “Oklahoma,” separated by a comma and written in graphite.