Ed Ruscha
American, born 1937
Potato
INV-2028
Ed Ruscha
American, born 19371964
photographphotography
Date
1964
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
Image: 19.4 × 24.1 cm (7 11/16 × 9 1/2 in.); Paper: 20.2 × 25.2 cm (8 × 9 15/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Purchased with funds provided by Constance R. Caplan and Photography Gala Fund
Ed Ruscha’s simple composition depicts a humble potato casting a delicate shadow onto a smooth surface. Created early in his career, this photograph shows his developing interest in elevating ordinary objects to the status of high art.
Throughout his career Ruscha has also aimed to create neutral images, or as he once put it, images that followed “a non-statement with a no-style.” This is especially true for the photobooks he created in the 1960s and ’70s, such as Various Small Fires and Milk, on view in a case in this gallery.
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