No Good Puns To Be Had With "Ruscha"

My prediction as to who would represent the United States at the 51st Biennale in Venice was Matthew Barney—when last I checked in, the State Department appeared ready to let the Guggenheim (owner of the American Pavilion) make that call, and I figured that despite the dwindling returns from the massive Cremaster 3 spectacular at the Gug in '03, Thomas Krens's partiality to Barney would rue the day. (You can read more about the Biennale scuttlebutt here.) But the forces of democracy prevailed and a panel of curators (including the Hirshhorn's Ned Rifkin) assembled and chose Ed Ruscha.

Around the time of his Whitney retrospective I wrote that Ed Ruscha deserved a more prominent spot in the pantheon than he's had. But I'm not sure that I feel he's right for the Biennale. It's kind of a hard proposition to say what is right for the Biennale since well over 90 percent of the work to be found there is dreadful, but I think the important thing is to contribute something unknown or unpredicted to the debate. My feeling is that some sexed-up painting (maybe Inka Essenhigh) would have done the trick, especially since painting will dominate the conversation if the Biennale at all reflects the larger discourse. Regardless, if I may be so bold as to judge from recent works displayed on the Barbara Krakow Gallery site, Ruscha promises to stand apart from the usual Biennale flotsam and jetsam. Maybe the Biennale would be a more successful venture if seasoned artists were invited to participate more often.

             


Ed Ruscha, You Will Eat Hot Lead, 2002

Ed Ruscha, L.A.S.F. #2, 2003