Ruscha. (Courtesy edruscha.com)

Following the lead of John Baldessari, Catherine Opie and Barbara Kruger, artist Ed Ruscha has resigned from the board of trustees at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. This means that there are currently no artists sitting on the museum's board.

Mr. Baldessari was the first to exit last week, citing not only the resignation (or perhaps firing) of beloved chief-curator Paul Schimmel, but also the forthcoming disco show at the museum as a major reason for leaving. He was followed by Ms. Opie and Ms. Kruger.

The news about Mr. Ruscha comes from a comment left by his wife on the Facebook page of Los Angeles Times art critic Christopher Knight in response to an article Mr. Knight wrote about the loss of three of the four artist trustees: "‎Christopher Knight, Ed has resigned. i guess they haven't announced it yet." The Times confirmed this with the museum Monday morning. Calls placed by us to Mr. Ruscha's studio Monday afternoon were not answered.

Update, 5 p.m.: The Times has obtained Mr. Ruscha's resignation letter, which reads in part: "My defection may look obvious, but it will be all the better for the museum, which is on a course different than I imagined, but one I hope to support in the future."

Mick Jagger, Ed Ruscha, Larry Gagosian. (Courtesy Patrick McMullan Company)

The residents of Miami are lucky enough to have an Ed Ruscha show on their hands right now, at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami. It's called "On the Road," and features paintings lined with passages from the Jack Kerouac novel of the same name, like "Brakemen eat surly meals in diners by the tracks."

Huffington Post's Tara Solomon interviewed Mr. Ruscha about the show and asked him about Kerouac's book. He had this to say:

I first read it in 1958 and felt an immediate connection to the vision of the characters in the story. They were like ambassadors of optimism. They were jumpy and impulsive and they loved the highways.

Also, he does not use social media. "If I did, I may as well join Scientology," he said.

The Getty Center, Los Angeles (Photo courtesy of The Getty Center)

With their “Pacific Standard Time” initiative nearing its end, the Getty Foundation and the Getty Research Institute are spearheading a similar, though more modest, exhibition series to open in April, 2013, focused on architecture and urban planning in Southern California.

The Getty Center in Los Angeles will present a survey exhibition, “Overdrive: L.A. Constructs the Future, 1940-1990,” while seven institutions, including the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Hammer Museum, will present simultaneous shows related to the urban landscape of L.A. and the surrounding cities following World War II.

“Basically it’s a smaller 'PST,'” Thomas Gaehtgens, the director of Getty Research Institute, told The Observer at a press briefing at Michael's restaurant this afternoon.

“It’s hard for New Yorkers to understand, because they don’t consider L.A. to be a city which is planned," he added. "We also have some problems understanding the sprawl.” The exhibition, in other words, will not be only about buildings.

There will be drawings from Frank Lloyd Wright and Frank Gehry, but also a look at the less glamorous side of L.A. “The freeways, the malls, the parking lots,” Mr. Gaetghens added. “All of these hubs have their different centers and different conversations.”

The Getty is also providing grants to seven institutions, ranging from $135,000 to $200,000, for research and planning related exhibitions, including a monographic show of A. Quincy Jones at the Hammer, an exhibition of young architects working in Frank Gehry's shadow at MoCA and “Fin-De-Sixties Los Angeles: From Pop to Postmodern” at the MAK Center in West Hollywood.

Contemporary artists will also be asked to create new work that will respond to the exhibitions. The Getty is currently in talks with Thomas Demand and Ed Ruscha. Mr. Ruscha, known for his documentation of the urban landscape of Los Angeles and beyond, will have his own exhibition opening on the same day, "In Focus: Ed Ruscha." The show will present images acquired by the Getty Museum in 2011, both iconic as well as previously unpublished works, that relate to and illuminate Mr. Ruscha's process as undertaken for several of his books like Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1963) and Some Los Angeles Apartments (1965).

Ding. (Photo by GalleristNY)

Well, this is adorable. The comment system on the Museum of Modern Art’s Inside/Out blog now has a CAPTCHA box powered by Ed Ruscha artworks. A CAPTCHA box? It’s that little box of letters and numbers—usually randomly generated—that you need to copy when leaving a comment on a website or signing up for a newsletter, to prove that you’re not a robot. (A tip of the hat to Greg Allen for bringing this to our attention.)

Now, when leaving a comment on Inside/Out, you can type words like Ding (a gorgeous little 1971 number by Mr. Ruscha), Oof (his yellow-on-blue masterpiece from 1962/63) and Rancho (dark umber on orange, from 1968).

It’s the little things.

Ed Ruscha. Rejected shot from 'Twentysix Gasoline Stations,' 1962. (Courtesy the artist and The Guardian UK)

Ed Ruscha is among the photographers whom The Guardian included in a series in which renowned photographers point to the 'worst shot' of their career. Of all the photographs included, we found Pop artist Ed Ruscha's rejected photo from his iconic series Twentysix Gasoline Stations, and his reasons for rejecting it, particularly charming.Published just shy of 50 years ago, in April, 1963, Twentysix Gasoline Stations was the first book by the American Pop artist and is widely considered the first artist's book and a model for other artists in what would become a boom in artist book culture. The book, published by Mr. Ruscha's own imprint, National Excelsior Press, shows images of 26 gas stations across the country all along Route 66 that Mr. Ruscha would travel when visiting his parents in Oklahoma City from his hometown of Los Angeles.

He called his book—which had no text save for captions that listed the location and the brand of gas station—a "collection of 'facts," and "readymades." Mr. Ruscha also intended for the book to enter the mass market cheaply like any other commodity. Originally priced at $3.50, when it first appeared, a second edition of the book now sells on eBay for $1,800. The project itself was also notable in that the artist conceived of the idea and worked out the typography and design before taking any pictures. He then shot roughly 60 images, and chose the final 26 from that pool. Despite all of this planning, it's humorous to hear the artist speak about a photo not making the cut because it was "too perfect with its phony Americana."

Here's Mr. Ruscha's explanation in full:

I found this car on the old Route 66 in a desolate area of Arizona. The picture has all the traits of a well-rounded photograph: there are the jack rabbits on the fence, which make it look as if there is movement; the car that’s really dead, including the tumbleweed and the beat-up old licence plate; the sky is totally non-committal; the horizon is mute. In a photography class, people would discuss how these different elements have come together. It possesses all the signifiers – and that’s the reason it fails. I feel like it’s my worst photograph. It’s too perfect with its phony Americana. I have never used it for anything. But at the same time I’m wondering if that car is still there, rusting away.

Courtesy Word Above the Street

The Art Newspaper reports that nonprofit organization Word Above the Street has signed up a bevy of artists for a 12-week project to transform 300 of New York's water towers into public artworks. Ed Ruscha, Lawrence Weiner, Marilyn Minter, E.V. Day, Tony Conrad, Andy Goldsworthy and Tony Oursler, as well as rapper Jay-Z are just some of the artists on board with the aptly named Water Tank Project, an effort to increase public awareness of the need to conserve water.

Word Above the Street is helmed by filmmaker Mary Jordan and supported by a team of curators that includes some art world bigwigs, like Lisa Dennison, the chairman of Sotheby’s North and South America; Neville Wakefield, the senior curatorial adviser for MoMA PS1; Alison Gingeras, the head curator of François Pinault’s collection; and Toby Devan Lewis, a trustee of the New Museum of Contemporary Art.

Though the full roster of artists is quite impressive, the project is not only open to established artists. The website has posted an open call to "all artists regardless of age, experience, sex, race, color, or national origin" and plans a school competition so some young artists will get the chance to express themselves across New York City's skyline.

Here's hoping Rachel Whiteread, a pioneer in water tower art, gets a crack at the project.

Update, Feb. 25: According to a representative at the Water Tower Project, at this time Radiohead singer Thom Yorke is not a part of the project, as was originally stated in this post.

Ms. Temkin. (Photo courtesy of Patrick McMullan)

Here's a tidbit we missed from the latest Gagosian press release: Ann Temkin, the Museum of Modern Art's chief curator of painting and sculpture, will pen a catalogue essay for Gagosian's 11-gallery Damien Hirst spot painting show.

The whole catalogue actually sounds fairly impressive. Along with Ms. Temkin's essay, the book will include pieces by "cultural critic Michael Bracewell and art historian Robert Pincus-Witten [who used to work for the gallery], as well as a conversation between Damien Hirst, Ed Ruscha and John Baldessari," according to the release.

As my colleague Andrew Russeth pointed out yesterday, Ms. Temkin has already written about the spot paintings, and in such a way that almost predicted this current multi-gallery exhibition. All credit to him for finding this quote, but here it is again:

“[Hirst] nurtures a fantasy of an exhibition that would unite dozens of the paintings in one place, an event that at long last would fully reveal the nightmarish character of the project. And only then, he says, would he decide that it was time to stop making them.”

From the artist's "Twentysix Gasoline Stations," 1963. (Photo: the artist and Gagosian Gallery)

The Getty Museum and Getty Research Institute have acquired a trove of Ed Ruscha photographs from Gagosian for an undisclosed sum. The collection includes 74 prints and two contact sheets.

"I am humbled and elated to have my work go to the top of the hill," the artist said in a statement. The news was first reported in The Los Angeles Times.

The museum also recently teamed up with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to acquire some 2000 Robert Mapplethorpe photos.