Details
ED RUSCHA (B. 1937)
Stains
the complete set of 75 mixed-media stained sheets, 74 on Eagle Coupon Bond 100% paper, and one on white silk moiré fabric, 1969, signed and numbered in ink on the justification page, number 32 of 70 (there were also two artist's proof examples), each stamped '1' to '75' consecutively (lower right), published by Heavy Industry Publications, Hollywood, each the full sheet, loose (as issued), with title, justification page, and table of contents pages, with the original linen covered portfolio case
Overall: 12 x 1112 x 112 in. (304 x 292 x 38 mm.)
(album)
Literature
Engberg B9
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Lot Essay

'Stains is a boxed set of single sheets of paper, done in 1969, and it's like a little treasure chest of overlooked things. Stains have always been scorned I guess, and it evolved out of my concepts of painting. I've always painted with a skin on a support, like paint on a canvas. And finally I got sick of doing it, and staining something, letting a wet material sink down into the fabric of the support—in this case paper—was the effort here and was my interest. The idea of using something that stains rather than a paint that sits on the surface of a canvas was my discovery for myself at the time.

So there is everything from wine stains, coffee stains, L.A. tap water that's almost invisible—lots of 'em, lots of stains. I made a little laundry list of things that I think I wanted to see at that time, one was even sulfuric acid which eats a hole in the paper, and everything that I selected seemed to be right at the time.

When I produced this thing, I remember buying a large quantity of this 100% rag content paper, and I got a call from the US government because it is the same kind of paper that would be used in counterfeiting, so I had a short-lived problem there, proving that I was not doing anything nefarious' – Ed Ruscha

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