Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
ARTIST ROOMS
Collection
Acquisitions 2008-2009
<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>
Music Balconies
ARTIST ROOMS
Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland. Presented by the artist, 2009

abstraction
cloud
emotions, concepts and ideas
grass
hill
landscape
leisure and pastimes
menace
music
music and entertainment
non-representational
plants and flowers
sky
sunset
text
times of the day
universal concepts
violence
weather
<p>Ruscha is an admirer of the British writer J.G. Ballard. The text painted over the scene here is a line from Ballard’s 1975 dystopian novel High Rise. Ballard’s vision of a dark futuristic urban environment contrasts with the idyllic rural sunset depicted in the painting. For Ruscha, ‘the phrase was a powerful thought coupled with a pictorial idea that ends in a gentle kind of clash’.</p><p><em>Gallery label, July 2019</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
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
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
30 June 2012 – 23 September 2012
2012-09-23
30 June 2012 – 23 September 2012
2012-09-23
2012-06-30
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery (Bristol, UK)
http://www.bristol-city.gov.uk
2012-06-30
ARTIST ROOMS 2012: Raw Materials: Four American Artists, 1972-2007
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
29 April 2017 – 29 April 2018
2018-04-29
29 April 2017 – 29 April 2018
2018-04-29
2017-04-29
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Edinburgh, UK)
http://www.nationalgalleries.org/
2017-04-29
ARTIST ROOMS Ed Ruscha
Collection based display
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
10 September 2023 – 6 October 2024
2024-10-06
10 September 2023 – 6 January 2024
2024-01-06
2023-09-10
Museum of Modern Art (New York, USA)
7 April 2024 – 6 October 2024
2024-10-06
2024-04-07
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles, USA)
2023-09-10
Ed Ruscha: A Retrospective
Loan-out
The Music from the Balconies
unconfirmed: 2515 × 2057 mm
<a href="/search?gid=999999788" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">ARTIST ROOMS</a>
Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland. Presented by the artist, 2009

<div class="text">
<p>
<i>The Music from the Balconies </i>depicts a grassland scene from a low vantage-point, with various types of flora in the foreground and rolling hills silhouetted in the background. The clouds in the light blue sky are illuminated in pinks, oranges and purples as if at sunset or sunrise. Painted on top of this landscape is the seemingly unrelated phrase ‘THE MUSIC FROM THE BALCONIES NEARBY WAS OVERLAID BY THE NOISE OF SPORADIC ACTS OF VIOLENCE’ in a clean, modern font that is evenly spaced. This work belongs to a large body of paintings, begun in the 1980s, in which the artist Edward Ruscha overlaid landscapes with texts (see <i>Pay Nothing Until April</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-pay-nothing-until-april-ar00047" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AR00047</span></a>, and <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>Unlike more recent examples of this type of composition, such as <i>Pay Nothing Until April </i>and <i>Daily Planet</i> which use acrylics, <i>The Music from the Balconies </i>is executed in oils. As a result the artist’s process of making the work is more visible in this painting than similar works produced in later decades. The text was applied using stencils and is presented in Boy Scout Utility Modern, a unique typeface created by the artist as a sort of ‘no-style’ (Richards 2008, p.82).</p>
<p>
<i>The Music from the Balconies </i>is testament to Ruscha’s friendship with the writer J.G. Ballard. Throughout their respective careers the pair shared a common aesthetic sensibility concerned with the deleterious effects of contemporary life. The text presented in this painting is lifted from Ballard’s 1975 novel <i>High-Rise</i>, which charts the moral and social breakdown of an ultra-modern, residential tower block. Ruscha has described this painting as an ‘illustration’ of some of the novel’s themes and ideas (artist’s talk, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, 21 October 2011). While not directly representing the urban setting in <i>High-Rise</i>, Ruscha’s painting offers an intriguing visual analogue for some of the psychological tensions that underpin the novel. The jarring juxtaposition of pastoral imagery and rationally-designed typeface reflect the conflict between man and nature that unravels throughout Ballard’s novel. While the exaggerated palette of Ruscha’s landscape causes it to appear artificially simulated or chemically induced, which might also be seen as reflecting the interests of Ballard, who frequently explored the themes of drugs and advanced technology in his writings.</p>
<p>The landscape represented in <i>The Music from the Balconies</i> appears to be inspired by the prairie landscapes of Ruscha’s childhood home of Oklahoma, although it could equally reflect the coastal prairies of California, his adopted home for many years. Seen in this light the prairie setting connects with the landscape tradition in American art and the wide-open vistas found in many of Ruscha’s paintings and photographic works dating back to the early years of his career. Likewise the saturated colours also recall the Technicolor film stock perfected during Hollywood’s golden age, highlighting Ruscha’s long-term interest in film and the Hollywood film industry, whose studios are located close to Ruscha’s own artistic studio.</p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Edward Ruscha and J.G. Ballard, <i>Edward Ruscha: Mountains and Portraits</i>, London 2000.<br/>J.G. Ballard, <i>High-Rise</i>, London 2006.<br/>Mary Richards, <i>Ed Ruscha</i>,<i> </i>Singapore 2008.</p>
<p>Luke Healey<br/>The University of Edinburgh<br/>March 2012</p>
<p>
<i>The University of Edinburgh is a research partner of ARTIST ROOMS.</i>
</p>
</div>

Summary
2016-03-18T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>Ruscha is an admirer of the British writer J.G. Ballard. The text painted over the scene here is a line from Ballard’s 1975 dystopian novel High Rise. Ballard’s vision of a dark futuristic urban environment contrasts with the idyllic rural sunset depicted in the painting. For Ruscha, ‘the phrase was a powerful thought coupled with a pictorial idea that ends in a gentle kind of clash’.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2019-07-26T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
abstraction cloud emotions, concepts and ideas grass hill landscape leisure and pastimes menace music music and entertainment non-representational plants and flowers sky sunset text times of the day universal concepts violence weather