Edward Ruscha
Actual Size1962

On view:

Broad Contemporary Art Museum, floor 3

Large-scale painting divided into midnight-blue upper half with oversized yellow 'SPAM' lettering and white lower half scattered with dark marks and a small Spam can label with yellow hand shape

Mixed-media work on white ground scattered with small blue dashes; a bright yellow painted brushstroke trails leftward from a small Spam can label, with the handwritten words "ACTUAL SIZE" written in pencil over the yellow paint.

Artist or Maker: Edward Ruscha
United States, Nebraska, Omaha, active California, Los Angeles, born 1937
Title: Actual Size
Place Made: United States
Date Made: 1962
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 67 1/16 × 72 1/16 in. (170.34 × 183.04 cm)
Credit Line: Anonymous gift through the Contemporary Art Council
Accession Number: M.63.14
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: Modern Art
Curatorial Notes: Words and phrases are central to Ed Ruscha’s work. While early twentieth-century artists have used text as collage or to challenge the relationship of language and images, Ruscha plays with puns, alliteration, and words that suggest sounds, all painted with careful attention to color, size, and font. In Actual Size, he includes a to-scale image of a flying can of Spam, elevating this budget-friendly lunchmeat to iconic status, similar to Warhol’s depiction of popular soup, cereal, and cleaning products. This painting was included in the 1962 exhibition New Painting of Common Objects at the Pasadena Art Museum, regarded as the first museum exhibition of Pop art in the United States.

Wall label, 2021.
Selected Bibliography: Los Angeles County Museum of Art Members' Calendar 1992, vol. 29-30, no. 12-1 (December, 1991-January, 1993).
Rowell, Margit. Cotton Puffs, Q-Tips®, Smoke and Mirrors: The Drawings of Ed Ruscha. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 2004.
Tuchman, Maurice. Ten Years of Contemporary Art Council Acquisitions: Inaugurating The New Contemporary Art Galleries. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1973.
A Focus on California: Selections from the Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1984.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2003.
Hickey, Dave; Hopkins, Henry T.; Livet, Anne and Peter Plagens. I Dont Want No Retro Spective: The Works of Edward Ruscha. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1982.
Tuchman, Maurice. Art in Los Angeles: Seventeen Artists in the Sixties. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1981.
Hickey, Dave; Marshall, Richard D.; and Rimanelli, David. Edward Ruscha: Made in Los Angeles. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 2002.
Various. "Une société de consommation." Connaissance des Arts 36 (March 2001).
Francis, Mark, ed. Les Années Pop. Paris: Editions du Centre Pompidou, 2001.
Powell III, Earl A., Robert Winter, and Stephanie Barron. The Robert O. Anderson Building. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1986.
Sunshine & Noir: Art in L.A., 1960-1997. Humlebaek: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 1997.
Haskell, Barbara and Phillips, Lisa. The American Century: Art and Culture 1900-2000. The Whitney Museum of American Art and W.W. Norton & Company, 2000.
Barron, Stephanie, Michel Draguet, and Sara Cochran. Magritte and Contemporary Art: The Treachery of Images. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Belgium: Ludion, 2006.
Allan, Ken D. "Ed Ruscha, Pop Art and Spectatorship in 1960s Los Angeles." Art Bulletin 40, no.4 (2010): 231-249.
Seldis, Henry J. "West Coast Milestone." Art in America 53, no.2 (1965): 92-109.
Ed Ruscha: Ribbon Words. New York: Edward Tyler Hahem, 2016.
Teagle, Rachel. Wayne Thiebaud, 1958-1968. Davis: Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art; Berkeley: University of California Press, 2018.
Critical perspectives in American art = Prospettive critiche nell'arte americana: United States Pavilion ... 37th Venice Biennial, 1976. N.p.: n.d., 1976.
Very: Ed Ruscha: Works from the UBS Art Collection. Berlin: Hatje Cantz, 2018.
Environment, Participation, Cultural Structures: General Catalogue. Vol. 1. Venezia: Alfieri Edizioni d'Arte, 1976.
Eliel, Carol, editor. Light, Space, Surface: Art from Southern California. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: DelMonico Books, 2021.
Ed Ruscha : OKLA. Oklahoma City: Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, 2021.
Cherix, Christophe, Ana Torok, and Kiko Aebi. Ed Ruscha - Now Then: A Retrospective. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2023.
Copyright: © Ed Ruscha

Related Unframed

Edward Ruscha
Actual Size1962

On view:

Broad Contemporary Art Museum, floor 3

Artist or Maker: Edward Ruscha
United States, Nebraska, Omaha, active California, Los Angeles, born 1937
Title: Actual Size
Place Made: United States
Date Made: 1962
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 67 1/16 × 72 1/16 in. (170.34 × 183.04 cm)
Credit Line: Anonymous gift through the Contemporary Art Council
Accession Number: M.63.14
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: Modern Art
Curatorial Notes: Words and phrases are central to Ed Ruscha’s work. While early twentieth-century artists have used text as collage or to challenge the relationship of language and images, Ruscha plays with puns, alliteration, and words that suggest sounds, all painted with careful attention to color, size, and font. In Actual Size, he includes a to-scale image of a flying can of Spam, elevating this budget-friendly lunchmeat to iconic status, similar to Warhol’s depiction of popular soup, cereal, and cleaning products. This painting was included in the 1962 exhibition New Painting of Common Objects at the Pasadena Art Museum, regarded as the first museum exhibition of Pop art in the United States.

Wall label, 2021.
Selected Bibliography: Los Angeles County Museum of Art Members' Calendar 1992, vol. 29-30, no. 12-1 (December, 1991-January, 1993).
Rowell, Margit. Cotton Puffs, Q-Tips®, Smoke and Mirrors: The Drawings of Ed Ruscha. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 2004.
Tuchman, Maurice. Ten Years of Contemporary Art Council Acquisitions: Inaugurating The New Contemporary Art Galleries. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1973.
A Focus on California: Selections from the Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1984.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2003.
Hickey, Dave; Hopkins, Henry T.; Livet, Anne and Peter Plagens. I Dont Want No Retro Spective: The Works of Edward Ruscha. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1982.
Tuchman, Maurice. Art in Los Angeles: Seventeen Artists in the Sixties. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1981.
Hickey, Dave; Marshall, Richard D.; and Rimanelli, David. Edward Ruscha: Made in Los Angeles. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 2002.
Various. "Une société de consommation." Connaissance des Arts 36 (March 2001).
Francis, Mark, ed. Les Années Pop. Paris: Editions du Centre Pompidou, 2001.
Powell III, Earl A., Robert Winter, and Stephanie Barron. The Robert O. Anderson Building. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1986.
Sunshine & Noir: Art in L.A., 1960-1997. Humlebaek: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 1997.
Haskell, Barbara and Phillips, Lisa. The American Century: Art and Culture 1900-2000. The Whitney Museum of American Art and W.W. Norton & Company, 2000.
Barron, Stephanie, Michel Draguet, and Sara Cochran. Magritte and Contemporary Art: The Treachery of Images. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Belgium: Ludion, 2006.
Allan, Ken D. "Ed Ruscha, Pop Art and Spectatorship in 1960s Los Angeles." Art Bulletin 40, no.4 (2010): 231-249.
Seldis, Henry J. "West Coast Milestone." Art in America 53, no.2 (1965): 92-109.
Ed Ruscha: Ribbon Words. New York: Edward Tyler Hahem, 2016.
Teagle, Rachel. Wayne Thiebaud, 1958-1968. Davis: Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art; Berkeley: University of California Press, 2018.
Critical perspectives in American art = Prospettive critiche nell'arte americana: United States Pavilion ... 37th Venice Biennial, 1976. N.p.: n.d., 1976.
Very: Ed Ruscha: Works from the UBS Art Collection. Berlin: Hatje Cantz, 2018.
Environment, Participation, Cultural Structures: General Catalogue. Vol. 1. Venezia: Alfieri Edizioni d'Arte, 1976.
Eliel, Carol, editor. Light, Space, Surface: Art from Southern California. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: DelMonico Books, 2021.
Ed Ruscha : OKLA. Oklahoma City: Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, 2021.
Cherix, Christophe, Ana Torok, and Kiko Aebi. Ed Ruscha - Now Then: A Retrospective. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2023.
Copyright: © Ed Ruscha