Stations Words | Bars Cars brings together the works of artists Ed Ruscha and Ron Cooper, who met and became friends during an intensely creative time in California—both artists attended Chouinard Art Institute.
An important aspect of each artists practice is the road, light, and movement across the landscape of the American west. The timing of this exhibition is also a celebration of sorts for the centennial of Route 66. Amarillo has been a unique place of inspiration and observation for a number of artists, but few locations have held such an iconic status in American art as Ed Ruscha’s paintings, prints, and photographs of a singular Standard Station in Amarillo, Texas. In a sense, this Station exists at a literal and figural intersection of an American crossroad.
As a member of the Southern California Light and Space movement, Ron Cooper’s use of automotive pigments on transparent plexiglass reflect and refract light—shifting tone and color as viewers engage and move through space. This engagement with light and space is uniquely available to those who travel across the vast horizontal plains of the Texas Panhandle. These works, in combination with a selection of Ruscha’s prints of signs and words, and alongside four of Ron Cooper’s immaculately constructed automobiles, provide an opportunity for reflection on a uniquely American experience.
