Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

  • AMMpro
  • AMM Fantasy Collecting Game
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

Ruscha’s $2.5 M. Text Work, Last of Series in Private Hands, to Sell at Christie’s

September 22, 2020 by Angelica Villa

Ed Ruscha, City, with Marbles (1969). Courtesy Christie’s Ltd 2020.

Christie’s has announced the leading lots for its upcoming contemporary art day sale. Works by Ed Ruscha, Albert Gottlieb, Ruth Asawa and Yoshitomo Nara, among others will be offered on October 7th at the house’s New York headquarters.

One of the top works in the group is Ed Ruscha’s City, with Marbles (1969). It is estimated at $2.5 million-$3.5 million. At 20 inches by 24 inches, the oil on canvas work features Ruscha’s coiled typescript against a deep-red two-tone ground reading the word “City,” flanked by two orbiting marbles. The piece is from a series of only three works made between 1968 to 1969. The counterparts titled Lisp (1968) and Sin with Olives (1969) each reside in museum collections; the former was purchased by the National Gallery of Art in 2001; the latter was gifted from the collection of Victoria and Kent Logan to SFMOMA in 1997. The present work was last sold at Christie’s New York in 2007 for $992,000 to the current owner.

Previously, it was in the collection of American oil services tycoon, Pierre M. Schlumberger, who was also a cousin of Houston patron Dominique de Menil. Over four decades, Schlumberger amassed a collection of blue-chip modern and contemporary art including works by Rothko, Matisse and Warhol, 90 works of which were sold at Sotheby’s in 2014.

A formative member of the American pop art movement, Ruscha’s style is widely known for influence taken from cinema, advertisements and visuals from postwar California. Text and cryptic phrases sourced from found materials of the everyday are center in Ruscha’s practice. He began incorporating text into his works around the late 1950s. His text works made in the 1960s are among his most valuable.

Larger high-caliber works from the 1960s, also featuring a single-word composition, have moved up Ruscha’s auction record in recent years. In 2014, his 1963 painting Smash went for $30.4 million at Christie’s New York. Last year, Hurting the Word Radio #2 (1964) from the collection of Beverly Hills patrons Jack and Joan Quinn sold for $52.2 million.

More from Art Market Monitor

  • Lucien Smith Resumes His Career with a Comprehensive WebsiteLucien Smith Resumes His Career with a Comprehensive Website
  • Can Murakami Go Big to Revive His Market?Can Murakami Go Big to Revive His Market?
  • $1.1m Wyeth Painting Leads Freeman’s American Sale$1.1m Wyeth Painting Leads Freeman’s American Sale
  • Indonesian Art Hangs ToughIndonesian Art Hangs Tough
  • Christie's PWC Press Conf.Christie's PWC Press Conf.
  • Dubai Rewards It's Art PatronsDubai Rewards It's Art Patrons

Filed Under: General

About Angelica Villa

Want to get Art Market Monitor‘s posts sent to you in our email? Sign up below by clicking on the Subscribe button.

Top Posts

  • Keith Haring’s 1989 Retrospect Comes to Sotheby’s London Prints Sale
  • Four of Picasso's Women Valued at $28m Come to Christie's from Rose-Walters Collection
  • Tony Podesta's Secret Art Buying
  • Norman Rockwell's Not Gay. But Is He a Great Artist?
  • Basquiat's Last Girlfriend
  • Aboudia, Zemba Luzamba, Dickens Otieno Anchor Contemporary African Art Sale at Artcurial in Marrakesh
  • Selection Bias In Art Is What Creates Value
  • How to Chant Like an Auctioneer
  • Cave Painting Porn Discovered
  • Roy Lichtenstein’s Top Ten Auction Prices
  • About Us/ Contact
  • Podcast
  • AMMpro
  • Newsletter
  • FAQ

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
California Privacy Rights
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Advertise on Art Market Monitor