Pastel on paper
Text and Language
Pop Art and its Legacy
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>
HOLLYWOOD TANTRUM
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
cities, towns, villages (non-UK)
colour
inscriptions
Los Angeles, Hollywood
monochromatic
non-representational
places
symbols and personifications
text
title of work
<p>The large-scale text of this drawing’s two-word title occupies the central third of the paper, the word ‘HOLLYWOOD’ almost completely spanning its horizontal axis. The neat letters display the untouched white of the paper, surrounded by a purple pastel background. These letters were not outlined by hand but were positioned on the paper with preparatory pencil markings before acetate stencils, in the sans serif typeface, were laid on the paper. Once these inverse stencils were in place, masking off the letters, Ruscha covered the paper surface with the pastel background. A fixative was then applied to maintain the crisp division between text and background, before the acetate stencils were peeled back to reveal the bare paper surface of the individual letters. In his reliance upon the technical aids of graphic design, Ed Ruscha subverts the common understanding of drawing as a preparatory medium of creative skill and self-expression. However, in <span>HOLLYWOOD TANTRUM</span>, the precision of the stencil technique is undercut by the fluidity of the pale purple background against which the letters stand out clearly. This background reflects one of the artist’s key technical experiments of this period, namely the loose, haphazard application of organic materials (such as foodstuffs) in his works on paper, as in the portfolio <span>Stains </span>1969 (Tate T12449).</p>
paper unique pastel
21 March 2009 – 13 June 2010
2010-06-13
21 March 2009 – 13 June 2010
2010-06-13
2009-03-21
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2009-03-21
Edward Ruscha
Collection based display
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
5 March 2011 – 16 April 2011
2011-04-16
2011-03-05
Timespan (Sutherland, UK)
http://www.timespan.org.uk/
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
22 July 2019 – 18 July 2021
2021-07-18
22 July 2019 – 18 July 2021
2021-07-18
2019-07-22
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2019-07-22
AR Ed Ruscha
Collection based display
HOLLYWOOD TANTRUM
support: 584 × 737 mm
frame: 730 × 874 × 38 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>The large-scale text of this drawing’s two-word title occupies the central third of the paper, the word ‘HOLLYWOOD’ almost completely spanning its horizontal axis. The neat letters display the untouched white of the paper, surrounded by a purple pastel background. These letters were not outlined by hand but were positioned on the paper with preparatory pencil markings before acetate stencils, in the sans serif typeface, were laid on the paper. Once these inverse stencils were in place, masking off the letters, Ruscha covered the paper surface with the pastel background. A fixative was then applied to maintain the crisp division between text and background, before the acetate stencils were peeled back to reveal the bare paper surface of the individual letters. In his reliance upon the technical aids of graphic design, Ed Ruscha subverts the common understanding of drawing as a preparatory medium of creative skill and self-expression. However, in <i>HOLLYWOOD TANTRUM</i>, the precision of the stencil technique is undercut by the fluidity of the pale purple background against which the letters stand out clearly. This background reflects one of the artist’s key technical experiments of this period, namely the loose, haphazard application of organic materials (such as foodstuffs) in his works on paper, as in the portfolio <i>Stains </i>1969 (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-stains-t12449" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T12449</span></a>). </p>
<p>The pastel was applied with liquid and a brush, so that horizontal brushstrokes are visible across its surface. This transformation of a dry medium into a painterly wash confuses the boundaries of drawing and painting. The application is irregular: in some areas the white of the paper shows through, while in others the purple achieves a dense coverage. In the bottom right-hand corner the colour mutates into something closer to a dirty brown, which could be a watermark. Some fingerprints are visible on the pastel surface and flecks of colour have strayed into the drawing’s white border. It is freer in its handling than most of Ruscha’s drawings; indeed the pastel application is almost careless. This offers up a connection between the background style and the text itself, which refers to a person out of control. </p>
<p>The words ‘HOLLYWOOD TANTRUM’ suggest a petulant actor or actress causing a noisy and embarrassing scene. Based in Los Angeles since 1956, Ruscha befriended and collaborated with actors such as Dennis Hopper (1936–2010) from the beginning of his career. In the 1960s and 1970s the art scene in L.A. had many links – both personal and professional – to the city’s film industry, fostering a sense of creative interaction between the spheres of art and cinema (see Schwartz 2010, pp.65–115). The seductive yet morally compromising lure of Hollywood is a recurring theme for Ruscha, who has also depicted the industry’s icons and landmarks repeatedly in his work, such as the Hollywood sign in the drawing <i>DEC. 30th </i>2005 (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-dec-30th-ar00065" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AR00065</span></a>). </p>
<p>Ruscha worked as a layout artist at a Los Angeles advertising agency after graduating from the Chouinard Art Institute in 1960, becoming the production designer for the influential <i>Artforum </i>magazine during 1965–9, under the pseudonym Eddie Russia. As the writer Mary Richards notes of works such as <i>HOLLYWOOD TANTRUM</i>, ‘Legible and authoritative like painted signs, these statements look bold and factual even when the phrases are kooky’ (Richards 2008, p.71). This intentional mixing of visual authority with verbal jokiness is a key characteristic of the late 1970s group of ‘catch-phrase’ drawings by Ruscha in ARTIST ROOMS (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-i-plead-insanity-because-im-just-crazy-about-that-little-girl-ar00053" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AR00053</span></a>–<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ruscha-hollywood-tantrum-ar00059" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AR00059</span></a>). These works build on Ruscha’s west coast pop art style of the early 1960s which established his reputation, replacing the slick visual representations of everyday objects and LA architecture (for example, <i>Standard Study #3</i> 1963, 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-standard-study-3-ar00050" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AR00050</span></a>) with a precise focus on the imaginative potential of language, while retaining the artist’s trademark playful irony.</p>
<p>The writer Neville Wakefield has considered Ruscha’s approach to language and its components, commenting: ‘Nouns, like Hollywood, are apt to take on the volatility of verbs. Reshaped as interruptions, rather than agents of communication, they refuse the fill-up of standard octane meaning. Crossing the lines of signification, Ruscha attenuates the spaces between images and words, between words and things, even as he collapses them.’ (Wakefield 1998, p.27.) The punchy textual energy of <i>HOLLYWOOD TANTRUM</i> toys with the popular fascination for that powerful place of cinematic dreams and the people who inhabit it. </p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Neville Wakefield, ‘Ed Ruscha: Material Fictions and Highway Codes’, in <i>Ed Ruscha: New Paintings and a Retrospective of the Works on Paper</i>, exhibition catalogue, Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London 1998, pp.23–31, repr. p.41.<br/>Mary Richards, <i>Ed Ruscha</i>, London 2008. <br/>Alexandra Schwartz, ‘Hollywood Signs’, in <i>Ed Ruscha’s Los Angeles</i>, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London 2010, pp.65–115. </p>
<p>Stephanie Straine<br/>March 2010</p>
</div>

Summary
2012-07-03T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p>During the mid 1970s, Ruscha made a series of drawings in pastel using pithy phrases against a field of colour. The sentences and phrases evoke American vernacular and slang, draw attention to a particular experience of the artist, or recall the excesses of Hollywood culture. This work brings to mind the cliché of the demanding Hollywood diva, and is one of numerous works which shows the artist’s ongoing concern with the culture of his adopted hometown of Los Angeles.</p>

Online caption
2009-04-16T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
abstraction cities, towns, villages (non-UK) colour inscriptions Los Angeles, Hollywood monochromatic non-representational places symbols and personifications text title of work