Wednesday, July 26, 2023

In aesthetics, “Huh? Wow!” is preferable to “Wow! Huh?”

 ---Jackson Arn, quoting Ed Ruscha, in God’s-Eye Views: Aerial Photography in the Southwest, Art in America, Nov 2022

In context

To put it succinctly: In aesthetics, “Huh? Wow!” is preferable to “Wow! Huh?” This rule, courtesy of Ed Ruscha, goes some way toward explaining why SAP [Southwestern aerial photography] has been a source of inspiration for artists as different as Trevor Paglen, Robert Smithson, Ansel Adams, Emmet Gowin, David Maisel, and—if we’re counting his shots of Los Angeles parking lots—Ruscha himself.