Ed Ruscha

Pershing Square Underground Lot, 5th & Hill

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About this artwork

This aerial shot turns a banal urban landscape into an abstract geometric design. Ruscha captured an empty Los Angeles parking lot in Pershing Square early one Sunday morning in 1967 from a helicopter, before any of the cars had arrived. From above this view of the city appears silent and lifeless. In 1999, Ed Ruscha selected 30 images from his artist book ‘Thirtyfour Parking Lots’ 1967/1999 and reprinted them as the print portfolio ‘Parking Lot Series’ 1967/1999 of which this image is one. He said, “over the years I began to appreciate print quality and see my photographs as not necessarily reproductions for a book, but as having their own life as silver gelatine prints.”

Updated before 2020

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  • artist:
    Ed Ruscha (born 1937) American
  • title:
    Pershing Square Underground Lot, 5th & Hill
  • date created:
    1967/99
  • materials:
    Gelatin silver print
  • measurements:
    39.40 x 39.40 cm (framed: 56.50 x 56.50 x 4.50 cm)
  • object type:
  • credit line:
    ARTIST ROOMS National Galleries of Scotland and Tate. Lent by Artist Rooms Foundation 2011
  • accession number:
    AL00244
  • gallery:
This artwork is part of Artist Rooms
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Ed Ruscha

Ed Ruscha