It was the winter of 1970 and I visited LA for the first time.
I had made an appointment to meet the coolest artist in town, if not in the country.
I was sitting in Irving Blum’s gallery on La Cienega Avenue, chatting to the delightful receptionist. I told her I had to leave soon, to catch the bus to Ed Ruscha’s studio on North Western Avenue. I asked her where did the bus leave from. “Bus?” she said, “People don’t take buses here. Take my car.” I didn’t even know her name half an hour earlier. “I like LA”, I said to myself. The drive down La Cienega, along Melrose Avenue to North Western was a bit spooky, although I got there in one piece and the Ford Mustang convertible was still also in one piece.
It was love at first sight, not the lovely receptionist. I mean Ed. Although he was as cool as a movie star, he happened to make great art too. We would become great friends.
Ed and I would produce many prints together and I was so proud to be the publisher. Everything but everything was amazing and exotic and cool and so very Californian.
How the images came about or how the words arrived in his head was quite a mystery, even to this day. I can at least tell you of an image and how it came into being. We all were in this Mexican restaurant on Alameda Street, Ed and me, Joe Goode and Larry Bell. We ordered loads of dishes, so we could relax and enjoy this blow-out. And we waited, and waited. And then we waited some more. Where is the food? It did eventually arrive and most of the dishes we ordered were wrong. All the food went back to the kitchen to get the right orders. We leaned back, into our fake leather banquette seats, hungrier but optimistic. Ed pulled out a sheet of paper from his pocket and wrote “I’m Amazed.” Actually we all were amazed, although I was even more amazed when Ed passed the piece of paper to me and said, “Here, Bernie, this is your print for that Big Print portfolio you are doing.”
The Californian artist from Oklahoma did make this gigantic screenprint, sixty by forty inches, with those words blasted across the sheet, with flies scattered all over the image. The whole portfolio was huge success, shown in museums and galleries all over the world, and Ed’s contribution was a smash hit. And, to be crass about it, made me loads of new friends – and money!
I miss Ed these days. LA seems so far away – but he is always in my mind. Cool guy, great friend, wonderful man.
- Bernard Jacobson
