Edward Ruscha

Roughly 92% Angel but about 8% Devil

1982

Not on display

Artist: Edward Ruscha born 1937
Medium: Lithograph on paper
Dimensions: Image: 368 × 388 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Purchased 1983
Reference: P07940

Catalogue entry

P07940 Roughly 92% Angel but about 8% Devil 1982

Softground etching 14 1/2 × 15 1/4 (368 × 388) on Somerset paper 24 3/8 × 22 1/2 (618 × 572), printed by Peter Pettengill at Crown Point Press Oakland, California and published by them in an edition of 25
Inscribed ‘Ed Ruscha 82’ b.r. and ‘6/25’; impressed with the printer's stamp
Purchased from Crown Point Press, (Grant-in-Aid) 1983

From the early 1970s Ruscha was making drawings and paintings of single words or short phrases placed against soft unmodulated backgrounds, which took on paradoxical resonance in isolation from their mundane contexts. This etching is printed from two plates, the second half of the title text being superimposed on the first.

Published in:
The Tate Gallery 1982-84: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions, London 1986