Curator, Ana Torok: In 1965, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art opened its doors to the public, and that same year, Ruscha began work on a monumental painting showing the museum on fire. While working out the composition for this painting, Ruscha shot a series of photographs of the museum campus from a helicopter, capturing the aerial perspective here and also in related drawings nearby.
Artist, Ed Ruscha: About this time that I was painting this picture, I had some oh, maybe personal gripes about the art world in general. And I felt like the museums were not really doing their jobs as far as opening their doors to contemporary art.
I didn’t have a hatred for museums, but maybe, like, I had a healthy distrust for museums. And so I guess part of this painting grew out of that. I didn’t know how this painting would be perceived. The museum actually had a notion to possibly buy that painting, which really surprised me, and then didn’t surprise me so much when they didn’t.
Audio courtesy Acoustiguide and Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago