Black Ants, 1972

Ed Ruscha is an American artist acclaimed for his text-based artworks. Ruscha is often associated with the Pop Art and Conceptual Art movements, although the artist always refused to dedicate himself only to one aesthetic. Influenced by a graphic designer background, he frequently merges language, typography and imagery in his works. Ruscha embraces the idea of a word becoming a picture, a shape in its own, a visual conduct. He sources words and longer strings of text from the ‘noise of everyday life’, using color, background and font to skew their meaning and challenge the viewer’s rationale. Contrary to other of his conceptual peers like Bruce Neuman, Ruscha’s works are intended to be indefinite, illogical and non-opinionated.

Black Ants is a departure from the more text-based, pop-art he is known for. Featuring screen-printed ants against a background that is strikingly similar to the frame that holds the piece, this almost looks as though a piece of glass was set down on a floor where ants are running to freeze time and capture their scattered state in that moment. Already in his eighties, the artist continues to impact contemporary art, fetching new auction records.