Back ‘on the road’ at Sonoma Valley Museum of Art

After nearly a year of eerie quiet, the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art is again entering the fray, opening its doors to art lovers and lookers for a solo exhibit featuring renowned photographer Ed Ruscha’s work.

Ruscha (pronounced roo-SHAY) is 83, but remains a prolific producer who works every day. “Every morning I get a tap on the shoulder that says 'do something today,'” Ruscha told the Index-Tribune.

Also, the alternative lacked appeal. “I decided I would not retire when I realized there would be no chance for advancement,” he said. Perhaps best known for his iconic photography, Ruscha is considered to be a pillar of the pop art movement.

As a young man fleeing Oklahoma in search of his California dream, Ruscha routinely traversed Route 66, motoring through Gallup and Flagstaff and Barstow, like the Bobby Troup song recommends. He got his kicks by chronicling the melancholy beauty of those sparse landscapes on film, focusing his lens on homely, humble targets.

“I get inspiration from objects and ideas that are either old or over-looked or forgotten,” Ruscha said. “When you scratch the surface they can become triumphant.”

In a short film narrated by actor Owen Wilson that plays on a loop at the Ruscha exhibit, the artist explains his fascination with gas stations and diners in simple terms. “They’re streamlined. That’s what I like.”

Ruscha’s observations have impressed a wide audience. “He is to highways, service stations and signage what Warhol was to soup cans,” Vanity Fair magazine said of the artist in 2018.

“Artists like Ruscha, who create art their entire lives have a unique perspective that is culturally significant,” said Linda Keaton, the museum’s executive director. “He returns to his original images and themes over and over again, each time observing with fresh eyes and gaining new insight. Ruscha sees what we all see, but his view goes beyond our own everyday observations, interpreting culture and cultural change in a spot-on, sometimes wryly humorous, always brilliant manner.”

The black and white images of filling stations and greasy spoons, deadpan landscapes flashing by like an endless zoetrope, became source material Ruscha would address in many iterations. Etched into the artist’s consciousness and captured on film, the scenes memorialized by Ruscha’s camera would eventually be translated to canvases and books.

The Sonoma Valley Museum of Art exhibit, titled “Travel Log,” features many of the most iconic black and white photos of Ruscha’s métier. Measuring just 6 inches in size, the photos contain both the finite and infinite: individually, they seem to capture a singular vision, but collectively, the vastness of the space between becomes plain.

“’Travel Log’s’ themes are uniquely inspiring for viewers who’ve endured a year of lockdowns,” Keaton said. “The exhibition features images of places seen ’along the way,’ like Ruscha’s “Twenty-six Gasoline Stations,” “Every Building on the Sunset Strip,” the snow-capped mountains in his iconic “Mountain Series,” the illustrated “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac, and others that invoke Ruscha’s singular vision, as well as our own travel adventures. It is a timely reminder for us all to consider getting back to a sense of creative exploration.”

The museum’s deputy director of engagement and exhibitions, Margie Maynard, believes many of us have been on the move all along. “During our time at home this past year, I think many of us took a similar trip through time, going through the boxes in our closets and the chests in our garages, combing through a trove of belongings that actually helped us remember who we used to be and how we arrived at our present time and place. Ruscha’s work is a lot about those inscrutable images from our past that stay with us — I think because, at one time, we gave them our full attention.”

Grandiosity is anathema to Ruscha’s work. He prefers simplicity to complexity again and again. “I like attention given to something that doesn’t require attention,” the artist said. “Travel Log” is a fair demonstration of that philosophy, a comprehensive representation of one man’s longstanding muse.

In addition to photography, the exhibit features color lithographs of Ruscha’s “word paintings,” a series that mixes formal imagery with playful language, many created on beautifully complex papers handmade by the artist. Another collection of framed photos by Ruscha, juxtaposed with Jack Kerouac’s seminal novel, “On the Road,” likewise demonstrate the artist’s ability to see old things anew.

Taken together, “Travel Log” is a reminder of the beauty that exists in the wide world for an audience that’s been homebound for a year, a nostalgic reminder that “elsewhere” still exists, and that one day soon, we may find it again.

The museum opened its doors to the general public on April 1, with admission free for the duration of “Travel Log.” The Ed Ruscha exhibit at SVMA closes on April 30.

Contact Kate Williams at kate.williams@sonomanews.com