City (1992) exemplifies Ed Ruscha’s continued fascination with architecture, typography, and the structure of modern life. Executed in acrylic and wood on canvas, the work is a unique piece within his oeuvre, unlike his more common rural or textual landscapes. It highlights Ruscha’s formula of combining serene, almost uncanny landscapes with bold, declarative words. City is particularly significant as the first painting in which Ruscha incorporated wooden dowels directly onto the canvas surface — a technique that adds sculptural dimensionality to his otherwise flat compositions. Only eight such works were ever made, making this example exceptionally rare. The dowels construct the eponymous text, which stands against a hazy and tranquil landscape, creating a poetic tension between the solidity of form and the ambiguity of atmosphere.

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