Silver gelatin print
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
ARTIST ROOMS
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>
Residential Rooftops 1
ARTIST ROOMS 
Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Lent by Artist Rooms Foundation 2011
architecture
car
cities, towns, villages (non-UK)
classification
countries and continents
documentary
emotions, concepts and ideas
features
formal qualities
garden
garden structures
hill
house
landscape
lifestyle and culture
Los Angeles, Beverly Boulevard
Los Angeles, Beverly Hills
offices
palm
photographic
places
public and municipal
residential
roof
sequence
society
street
townscape
townscapes / man-made features
transport: land
urban environment
USA, California
<p><span>Residential (Rooftop Series #1)</span> 1961, printed 2004 is a black and white photograph taken by the American artist Ed Ruscha. Shot in his home city of Los Angeles, the image presents an urban road lined with bungalows, apartment buildings, palm trees and parked cars. The road runs diagonally from the lower left corner of the photograph and reaches its vanishing point in the middle of the frame. Ruscha captured this image from the top of a building, with the rooftop taking up the foreground of the image. Beverly Hills can be seen in the far distance, with the clear sky above it occupying the top third of the frame. Ruscha took this photograph at a slightly skewed angle, with the entire composition leaning slightly to the right.</p>
paper print silver gelatin
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
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
Residential (Rooftops Series #1)
Support: 778 × 778 mm
Frame: 781mm x 781mm 

<a href="/search?gid=999999788" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">ARTIST ROOMS</a> 
Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Lent by Artist Rooms Foundation 2011
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<p>
<i>Residential (Rooftop Series #1)</i> 1961, printed 2004 is a black and white photograph taken by the American artist Ed Ruscha. Shot in his home city of Los Angeles, the image presents an urban road lined with bungalows, apartment buildings, palm trees and parked cars. The road runs diagonally from the lower left corner of the photograph and reaches its vanishing point in the middle of the frame. Ruscha captured this image from the top of a building, with the rooftop taking up the foreground of the image. Beverly Hills can be seen in the far distance, with the clear sky above it occupying the top third of the frame. Ruscha took this photograph at a slightly skewed angle, with the entire composition leaning slightly to the right.</p>
<p>In 1961 Ruscha began working as a layout artist for Carson-Roberts Advertising Agency in West Hollywood, which was situated between Beverly Boulevard and North Flores Street. <i>Residential (Rooftop Series #1)</i> is one of four photographs that the artist captured from the roof of this building, where he took his daily lunch break. Together the photographs provide an overview of the different areas visible to Ruscha from this spot. He shot these scenes using a lightweight 2¼-inch format Yashica camera, which he would continue to use throughout his time working in photography. Despite taking these images in the early 1960s the series remained unpublished until 2004, at which point Ruscha and art dealer Patrick Painter released <i>Rooftop Series </i>as a collection of limited edition prints. All four of the photographs from this series are in the ARTIST ROOMS collection (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-residential-rooftops-series-1-al00235" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AL00235</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-hancock-rooftops-series-4-al00238" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AL00238</span></a>).</p>
<p>The images in <i>Rooftop Series</i> were taken two years prior to the publication of Ruscha’s first photobook <i>Twentysix Gasoline Stations</i> 1963 (Tate Library and Archive, <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/about/projects/transforming-artist-books/summaries/edward-ruscha-twentysix-gasoline-stations-1963">http://www.tate.org.uk/about/projects/transforming-artist-books/summaries/edward-ruscha-twentysix-gasoline-stations-1963</a>, accessed 26 February 2016) yet they were not originally conceived to be published in any physical format. In the artist’s own words this series was ‘not a cohesive book idea’ (quoted in Schwartz 2010, p.125). Nonetheless the images foreground interests that characterise Ruscha’s photography of the 1960s and 1970s, such as seriality, deadpan aesthetics, and architectural subjects. Ruscha’s high vantage point gives the image an overhead view, and so highlights his interest in ‘tabletop photography’ during this period. This term is often used to describe Ruscha’s preoccupation with photographing subjects from above, as can be seen in his later aerial shots of Californian parking lots (see for example <i>State Board of Equalization, 14601 Sherman Way, Van Nuys </i>1967, printed 1999,<i> </i>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-state-board-of-equalization-14601-sherman-way-van-nuys-al00262" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AL00262</span></a>).</p>
<p>1961 was an important year for Ruscha. As well as securing his first professional post in an advertising firm, he graduated from the Chouniard Art Institute as a painter. Ruscha also spent seven months travelling around Europe with his mother and brother, where he photographed the urban environments of cities such as Amsterdam, Paris and Zurich. Describing the role of photography in his early career, Ruscha has stated: ‘I began to shoot pictures while I was in school, but not on a serious basis. I liked the idea that it could capture the here and now, an immediate reality that could then be appraised and put back into painting’ (quoted in Rowell 2006, p.12). <i>Rooftop Series</i>, which he captured after completing his education in the commercial arts but before the publication of his photobooks, might be understood as a transitionary project within the context of his professional career. Ruscha may well have viewed the series as supplementary to his advertising work, given the strong role that posters and signage play in the series as a whole. However, the photographs themselves mark the emergence of aesthetic and thematic tropes that Ruscha developed throughout his productive career as a photographer.</p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Margrit Rowell, <i>Ed Ruscha: Photographer</i>, exhibition catalogue, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York 2006.<br/>Mary Richards, <i>Ed Ruscha</i>, London 2008.<br/>Alexandra Schwartz, <i>Ed Ruscha’s Los Angeles</i>, Cambridge, Massachusetts 2010, p.130, reproduced p.126.</p>
<p>Aaron Shaw<br/>University of Edinburgh<br/>February 2016</p>
<p>
<i>The University of Edinburgh is a research partner of ARTIST ROOMS.</i>
</p>
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Summary
2017-01-27T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
architecture car cities, towns, villages (non-UK) classification countries and continents documentary emotions, concepts and ideas features formal qualities garden garden structures hill house landscape lifestyle and culture Los Angeles, Beverly Boulevard Los Angeles, Beverly Hills offices palm photographic places public and municipal residential roof sequence society street townscape townscapes / man-made features transport: land urban environment USA, California