Self-Service—Milan, New Mexico

1962

Not on view

Returned to lender

This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.

This intentionally mundane work by the Los Angeles–based painter and printmaker, Ed Ruscha, appears in Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1963), the first of sixteen landmark photographic books he published between 1963 and 1978. The volume established the artist’s reputation as a conceptual minimalist with a mastery of typography, an appreciation for seriality and documentary practice, and a deadpan sense of humor. Early on, he was influenced by the photographs of Walker Evans. "What I was after," said Ruscha, "was no-style or a non-statement with a no-style."

Artwork Details

Overview

Exhibition History

Title: Self-Service—Milan, New Mexico
Artist: Edward Ruscha (American, born Omaha, Nebraska, 1937)
Date: 1962
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Dimensions: Image: 4 11/16 × 4 11/16 in. (11.9 × 11.9 cm)
Framed: 12 × 15 in. (30.5 × 38.1 cm)
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Promised Gift of Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee, in celebration of the Museum’s 150th Anniversary
Curatorial Department: Photographs