General Discussion

The American artist Edward Ruscha created a most prescient work, "The Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Fire" circa 1966. The masterpiece today is part of the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.



Ed Ruscha: About this time that I was painting this picture, I had some oh, maybe personal gripes about the art world in general. And I felt like the museums were not really doing their jobs as far as opening their doors to contemporary art.

I didn’t have a hatred for museums, but maybe, like, I had a healthy distrust for museums. And so I guess part of this painting grew out of that. I didn’t know how this painting would be perceived. The museum actually had a notion to possibly buy that painting, which really surprised me, and then didn’t surprise me so much when they didn’t.

Source: https://www.moma.org/audio/playlist/334/4456