Acrylic paint on paper
Text and Language
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
ARTIST ROOMS
National Heritage Memorial Fund
Art Fund
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/edward-ruscha-1882" aria-label="More by Edward Ruscha" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Edward Ruscha</a>
CROSSOVER DREAMS
ARTIST ROOMS
Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund 2008
abstraction
blur
diseases and conditions
dreaming
emotions, concepts and ideas
formal qualities
inscriptions
non-representational
people
symbols and personifications
text
title of work
<p>In this drawing the words ‘CROSSOVER DREAMS’ are stencilled on a large sheet of museum board of elongated landscape proportions. The letters were outlined on the paper with preparatory pencil markings using a font template, before stencils were hand cut around the shape of the letters and temporarily affixed to the paper, in a process similar to that used in Ruscha’s ‘catch-phrase’ drawings, such as <span>ARTISTS WHO DO BOOKS</span> 1976 (Tate AR00056) and <span>SMELLS LIKE BACK OF OLD HOT RADIO </span>1976 (Tate AR00055). Once these inverse stencils were in place, the acrylic paint that forms the background of the drawing was applied by spray gun. Only after this painting process was complete were the stencils removed to reveal the bare surface of the white paper marking out the individual letters.</p>
paper unique acrylic paint
18 September 2010 – 16 April 2011
2011-04-16
18 September 2010 – 20 November 2010
2010-11-20
2010-09-18
Inverness Museum & Art Gallery (Inverness, UK)
http://www.invernessmuseum.com
15 January 2011 – 26 February 2011
2011-02-26
2011-01-15
Swanson Gallery (Thurso, UK)
http://www.highland.gov.uk/leisureandtourism/what-to-see/arts/ar
2010-09-18
ARTIST ROOMS 2010: Highland Touring Circuit - Ed Ruscha
Loan-out
28 May 2011 – 29 October 2011
2011-10-29
28 May 2011 – 29 October 2011
2011-10-29
2011-05-28
Wolverhampton Art Gallery (Wolverhampton, UK)
http://www.wolverhamptonart.org.uk
2011-05-28
ARTIST ROOMS 2011: Ed Ruscha
Loan-out
22 February 2013 – 22 May 2013
2013-05-22
22 February 2013 – 22 May 2013
2013-05-22
2013-02-22
Hatton Gallery (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK)
2013-02-22
ARTIST ROOMS 2013: Ed Ruscha
Loan-out
CROSSOVER DREAMS
support: 511 × 765 mm
frame: 564 × 813 × 37 mm
<a href="/search?gid=999999788" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">ARTIST ROOMS</a>
Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the <a href="/search?gid=999999967" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">National Heritage Memorial Fund</a> and the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 2008
<div class="text">
<p>In this drawing the words ‘CROSSOVER DREAMS’ are stencilled on a large sheet of museum board of elongated landscape proportions. The letters were outlined on the paper with preparatory pencil markings using a font template, before stencils were hand cut around the shape of the letters and temporarily affixed to the paper, in a process similar to that used in Ruscha’s ‘catch-phrase’ drawings, such as <i>ARTISTS WHO DO BOOKS</i> 1976 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ruscha-artists-who-do-books-ar00056" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AR00056</span></a>) and <i>SMELLS LIKE BACK OF OLD HOT RADIO </i>1976 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ruscha-smells-like-back-of-old-hot-radio-ar00055" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AR00055</span></a>). Once these inverse stencils were in place, the acrylic paint that forms the background of the drawing was applied by spray gun. Only after this painting process was complete were the stencils removed to reveal the bare surface of the white paper marking out the individual letters.</p>
<p>The sprayed acrylic background takes the form of multiple, irregularly distributed circular patches of black paint, the spray gun having been directed close to the surface of the museum board to achieve the effect. The paint diffuses from these spots so that most of the drawing’s surface area is given a light grey coating, differentiating the background from the letters and the drawing’s margin, both of which are the original white colour of the museum board.</p>
<p>The text of the two-word title uses a slim line, capitalised sans serif font which is significantly different from the fonts and hand-drawn lettering Ruscha used in his paintings and drawings of words and phrases in the 1960s and 1970s (see <i>HONK</i> 1962, Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ruscha-honk-ar00184" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AR00184</span></a> and <i>MAD SCIENTIST </i>1975, Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ruscha-mad-scientist-ar00051" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AR00051</span></a>). Ten years before the production of <i>CROSSOVER DREAMS</i>, in 1981, Ruscha designed his own typeface, which was to become a central component of his work, including this drawing. When asked in a 2009 interview what his favourite font was, the artist replied: </p>
<p class="cttext">
</p><blockquote>One of my own invention, which I call ‘Boy Scout Utility Modern’. If the telephone company was having a picnic and asked one of their employees to design a poster, this font is what he’d come up with. There are no curves to the letters – they’re all straight lines – and I’ve been using it for years. I guess it’s my font, because it’s become comfortable to me, and I can’t get beyond it – and don’t need to get beyond it. </blockquote>
<blockquote>(Quoted in McKenna 2009, p.58.) </blockquote>
<p>The ‘Boy Scout Utility Modern’ font is a means to introduce uniformity across a vast number of works in different media, creating a visual look that is unmistakably Ruscha’s, while also advancing the ambiguities of interpretation which characterise the texts themselves. Among the other works which make use of the font is the painting <i>DAILY PLANET </i>2003 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ruscha-daily-planet-ar00048" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AR00048</span></a>).</p>
<p>The greyscale appearance of this drawing is evocative of old black and white movies – a longstanding interest of the artist’s which may be seen in his works that explore the fragile materiality of celluloid, such as ‘The End’ series (for example, <i>The End #1</i> 1993, Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ruscha-the-end-1-t07512" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T07512</span></a>). The title and subject matter of <i>CROSSOVER DREAMS </i>alludes to a central and mythic desire of many Hollywood-based actors: to ‘crossover’ from television or theatre work into film roles, the cinema being viewed as the apex of an actor’s career – the route to fame, success and wealth. The labelling of these crossover aspirations as mere dreams points to the statistical unlikelihood of achieving such a goal. Ruscha’s wry look at his adopted hometown of Los Angeles exposes it as a place of failure and deferred ambition, littered with the broken dreams of actors and actresses who never quite made it. The sombre monochrome palette of the background provides a suitably melancholic tone for the drawing.</p>
<p>The artist has lived and worked in Los Angeles since moving to the city from Oklahoma at the age of eighteen, in 1956. Ruscha’s artistic identity is intimately entwined with Los Angeles and its film industry. His work takes inspiration from the sprawling west coast metropolis and its iconic role as producer of Hollywood myth and fantasy. ‘“If I’m influenced by the movies,” says Ruscha: “it’s from way down underneath, not just on the surface.”’ (Quoted in Rowell and Butler 2004, p.21.)</p>
<p>
<b>Further reading </b>
<br/>Margit Rowell and Cornelia Butler, <i>Cotton Puffs, Q-tips, Smoke and Mirrors: the Drawings of Ed Ruscha</i>, exhibition catalogue, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York 2004. <br/>Kristine McKenna, ‘Ed Ruscha in Conversation with Kristine McKenna’, in <i>Ed Ruscha: Fifty Years of Painting</i>, exhibition catalogue, Hayward Gallery, London 2009, pp.55–63.</p>
<p>Stephanie Straine<br/>April 2010</p>
</div>

Summary
2012-07-03T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
abstraction blur diseases and conditions dreaming emotions, concepts and ideas formal qualities inscriptions non-representational people symbols and personifications text title of work