Ed Ruscha Bailarina (from Barcelona Suite/Portfolio California) Lithograph

Artist: Ed Ruscha
Title: Bailarina (from Barcelona Suite/Portfolio California)
Medium: Lithograph in Colors on Guarro29 Paper
Year: 1988
Size: 29.75" × 22"
Edition: 71/75
Publisher: Ediciones Polígrafa, Barcelona
Printed by: Poligrafa Obra Grafica, Barcelona
Inscription: Signed and numbered to lower edge '71/75 Ed Ruscha 1988'
Documentation: Includes Gallery Certificate of Authenticity
Literature: Engberg 164

"Bailarina" (1988) is a color lithograph by Ed Ruscha, created as part of the Barcelona Suite within the broader Portfolio California. The work exemplifies Ruscha's sustained investigation into the visual and psychological power of imagery drawn from both popular culture and art historical convention. Throughout his career, Ruscha has been known for distilling familiar motifs into spare, evocative compositions that balance clarity with ambiguity, and "Bailarina" reflects this approach through its restrained palette and enigmatic subject.

The composition presents the silhouetted figure of a dancer rendered in stark contrast against a softly modulated, granular ground. The figure appears suspended between presence and absence, simultaneously recognizable and abstracted. Ruscha's use of tonal gradation and atmospheric texture recalls photographic source material, yet the image resists narrative specificity. The title introduces an element of linguistic framing, a strategy central to Ruscha's practice, encouraging viewers to consider the relationship between word, image, and expectation. In "Bailarina", the elegance implied by the title is counterbalanced by the anonymity of the figure, reinforcing Ruscha's interest in detachment and visual neutrality.

Produced during the late 1980s, this work aligns with a period in which Ruscha increasingly explored figurative imagery filtered through conceptual restraint. The Barcelona Suite was realized in collaboration with Polígrafa Obra Grafica in Barcelona, a workshop known for its technical excellence and long history of working with leading contemporary artists. Prints from this suite and related portfolios are held in the collections of major institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Tate, underscoring the significance of Ruscha's printmaking within his broader oeuvre.

"Bailarina" is a lithograph in colors on Guarro paper, measuring 29 3/4 inches high by 21 7/8 inches wide. The work was printed by Polígrafa Obra Grafica and published by Ediciones Polígrafa, Barcelona, in 1988, and issued in a limited edition of seventy five impressions. This example is numbered 71/75 and is signed, dated, and numbered along the lower edge "71/75 Ed Ruscha 1988". The print is referenced in the catalogue raisonné as Engberg 164 and is accompanied by a Gallery Certificate of Authenticity.

About Ed Ruscha

Ed Ruscha is an American artist whose work has played a central role in the development of postwar American art, particularly through his contributions to Pop Art, Conceptual art, and the expansion of artist books as a serious artistic medium. Born Edward Joseph Ruscha IV in 1937 in Omaha, Nebraska, Ruscha was raised in Oklahoma City before relocating to Los Angeles in 1956, a move that would profoundly shape his artistic vision and subject matter. The urban landscape, commercial vernacular, and psychological space of Southern California became enduring themes throughout his career.

Ruscha studied at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, now part of the California Institute of the Arts, graduating in 1960. Early exposure to commercial graphic design and advertising deeply informed his aesthetic, particularly his interest in typography, signage, and the visual language of mass culture. By the early 1960s, Ruscha had emerged as a key figure in the Los Angeles art scene, developing a distinctive approach that diverged from the gestural abstraction dominant in New York at the time. Instead, his work embraced clarity, restraint, and deadpan presentation.

Artist books represent another cornerstone of Ruscha's practice. Beginning in the early 1960s, he produced a series of small, inexpensive books featuring photographic sequences and sparse text. These publications challenged conventional notions of art objects, emphasizing accessibility, repetition, and conceptual rigor. They have since become foundational works within the history of contemporary art and continue to influence artists working across disciplines.

Ruscha's work is held in major museum collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Tate Modern. He has been the subject of numerous retrospective exhibitions that examine the breadth and consistency of his artistic vision. Over the course of more than six decades, Ed Ruscha has maintained a disciplined and highly influential practice, one that bridges popular culture and conceptual inquiry while redefining the possibilities of text, image, and landscape in modern and contemporary art.