Ed Ruscha’s Deadpan Mise-en-Scène

Antonova, Yuliia

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Ed Ruscha’s Deadpan Mise-en-Scène

Antonova, Yuliia

Abstract

Ed Ruscha’s artworks have often been discussed in relation to both cinema and deadpan aesthetics. While both issues have been extensively researched separately, they were not discussed concerning one another within Ruscha’s art practice, especially his oil paintings. What is more, even though the impact of cinema on Ruscha’s paintings and photographs has been extensively analyzed, his artworks have never been viewed through film theory itself. By focusing on Large Trademarks with Eight Spotlights (1962) as a case study, this thesis engages with the cinema, both Old Hollywood and experimental, film theory, and deadpan aesthetics in order to show the uniqueness of Ruscha’s use of deadpan aesthetic through the visual devices of cinema.