Pop artist Ed Ruscha is a staple of 20th-century American art. He rose to prominence in the early 1960s with his cartoon-inspired paintings like HONK (1962), OOF (1963) and SPAM (1962). At the time, Ruscha frequently made the 1000-mile road trip on Route 66 between his hometown, Oklahoma, and his chosen city, Los Angeles. On these journeys, he created the photographic series Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1963), which remains one of his most well-known works to date. Ruscha also made the series into a book and, throughout his career, has returned to the same pictures again and again – turning them into paintings, drawings and prints, which, along with iconic symbols like the Hollywood sign and 20th Century Fox, serve as documents of American life in all its jaded consumerist glory.
