NARRATOR:
Before turning to a career as a painter, Ed Ruscha worked in graphic design and advertising. […] Like other Pop artists of the 1960s, he delights in blurring the lines between commercial and so-called “high art.” By 1966, when he painted Annie, Poured from Maple Syrup, Ruscha was considered one of the foremost California artists. He was fascinated with the idea of text as subject matter.
In this particular font, the word “Annie” is immediately recognizable as a reference to the comic strip Little Orphan Annie, which had been running in newspapers since the 1920s. The idea of writing the name in maple syrup is at once amusing and absurd. Sweet sticky syrup is a fitting reference to the relentlessly cheerful cartoon character. But it’s an impractical writing medium—especially for a flat surface designed to be hung vertically on a wall.
Ruscha used thin washes of color, meticulously building them to create a three-dimensional illusion. Each letter is carefully modeled to create a sense of volume and surface tension. We feel the syrup may begin to drip at any moment. Take a close look—the glistening surface of Annie, Poured from Maple Syrup is completely smooth. With its stray drips and bubbles bursting from the edges, the syrup is amazingly tactile—and incredibly real. The artist leaves no visible brushstrokes that might remind us that this is a painting.
Annie, Poured from Maple Syrup
1966
Ed Ruscha (American, 1937-)
On View
Los Angeles–based artist Ed Ruscha understands the visual power of words. Over his six-decade career, he has often used text in his paintings, prints, drawings and photographs, employing it to challenge the distinctions between fine art and commercial imagery. Annie, Poured from Maple Syrup is the first in a series of trompe l’oeil liquid “word” paintings that Ruscha began making in the mid-1960s. Set against a vibrant yellow background, the name “Annie”—its typeface a direct reference to the popular comic strip Little Orphan Annie—is painted to look as if the letters were formed from the classic American breakfast condiment. By the 1970s, the illusionistic quality of Ruscha’s drip-word paintings gave way to a more literal approach, as the artist began to add new and unconventional materials, such as caviar, chocolate, motor oil and Pepto-Bismol.
Details
- Artist Name: Ed Ruscha (American, 1937-)
- Title: Annie, Poured from Maple Syrup
- Date: 1966
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 55 x 59 in. (139.7 x 149.9 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Museum, Gift of the Men's Committee
- Accession Number: P.1966.06
- Copyright: © 2012 Edward Ruscha
Object Information
[Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles, to];
Men's Committee of the Membership Council, Pasadena, gift 1966 to;
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, 1966-1975;
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, 1975.
Men's Committee of the Membership Council, Pasadena, gift 1966 to;
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, 1966-1975;
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, 1975.
American Pop Art
- Whitney Museum of American Art, 1974-04-05 to 1974-06-16
Pop Art: US/UK Connections 1956-66
- Houston, The Menil Collection, 2001-01-26 to 2001-05-13
The Pop '60s: Transatlantic Crossing
- Lisbon, Portugal, Centro Cultural de Belem, 1997-09-11 to 1997-12-07
Timepieces
- Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, Calif.), 1998-04-13 to 1999-02-21
Ferus
- Gagosian Gallery, 2002-09-12 to 2002-10-19
Constructing a History: A Focus on the Permanent Collection
- Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, Calif.), to
American Art of the 1950s and 1960s from the Collection of the Norton Simon Museum
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991-08-19 to 1994-05-03
American Art of the 1960s from the Norton Simon Museum
- Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, Calif.), 1988-10-04 to 1989-02-05
Images of an Era
- Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, Calif.), 1995-10-15 to 1997-08
Selections from the Permanent Collection and the Norton Simon Museum
- Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, Calif.), 1989-02-05 to 1989-05-28
American Art of the 1960s from the Norton Simon Museum
- Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, Calif.), 1990-03-13 to 1990-06-17
Radical Past: Contemporary Art and Music in Pasadena, 1960-1974
- Norton Simon Museum, 1999-02-07 to 1999-06-06
- Armory Center for the Arts, 1999-02-07 to 1999-04-11
- Art Center College of Design (Pasadena, Calif.), 1999-02-07 to 1999-04-25
Made in America: Contemporary Painting and Sculpture from the Norton Simon Museum
- Norton Simon Museum, 1999-06-24 to 2000-03-26
Duchamp to Pop
- Norton Simon Museum, 2016-03-04 to 2016-08-29
West Coast Art
- Pasadena Art Museum, 1972-06-20 to 1972-09-03
American Art Since 1950 from the Norton Simon Museum
- Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, Calif.), 1990-06-30 to 1990-09-09
Pop Culture!
- Norton Simon Museum, 2001-11-16 to 2002-02-11
Permanent and Loan Collection, 1973
- Pasadena Museum of Modern Art, 1973-01-30 to 1973-12-31
- Bourdon, David, Art International, p. 26
- Los Angeles Times, p. 5
- Los Angeles Times, p. 2
- Knight, Christopher, Los Angeles Times, p. 5
- Register, Kathy, Pasadena Star-News, pp. A-1, A-5
- Register, Kathy, Pasadena Star News, p. A-5
- Bourdon, David, Visible Language, 1972, cover
- Alloway, Lawrence, American Pop Art, 1974, no. 34 p. 40
- Bijutsu Techo, 1975,
- Christie's East, NY, Modern and Contemporary Art, 1980, pp. 58-59
- Bois, Yves-Alain, Edward Ruscha: Romance with Liquids, Paintings 1966-69, 1993, pp. 21-22, 43
- Livingston, Mark, The Pop '60s Transatlantic Crossing, 1997, no. 63 p. 99
- Armory Center for the Arts/Art Center College of Design, Radical Past: Contemporary Art & Music in Pasadena, 1960-1974, 1999, p. 46, cover
- Pop Art: U.S./U.K. Connections 1956-1966, 2001, no. 57 p. 222-223
- Blum, Irving, Ferus, 2002, pp. 106-7
- Blum, Irving, Ferus (reprint), 2009, pp. 106-7
Additional Artwork by Artist
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