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Everything Is Over

Allen Ruppersberg and Landfall Press, Inc.

Everything Is Over

1988

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Everything Is Over

1988

Physical Qualities Color lithograph, Sheet: 560 x 351 mm. (22 1/16 x 13 13/16 in.) Image: 541 x 335 mm. (21 5/16 x 13 3/16 in.)
Portfolio/Series From the portfolio "Preview Suite"
Credit Line Women's Committee Acquisitions Endowment for Contemporary Prints and Photographs
Object Number 2011.71.7
Allen Ruppersberg is among a group of influential West Coast artists (including Ed Ruscha whose work is on view nearby) who by the late 1960s were redefining the forms that art might take. In 1969, Ruppersberg conceived an installation and performance piece called Al’s Café in which the artist himself manned the restaurant counter and served up plates of inedible, but sculpturally arranged food and objects along with beer and conversation. Since then, the artist has spent most of his career exploring language and the formats in which it appears, notably books and posters. Preview Suite combines text from miscellaneous sources with statements written by Ruppersberg. These are presented on the distinctive, colorful designs of Los Angeles’s Colby Poster Printing Company, more typically used for street advertisements. Phrases like “What should I do?” suggest an everyday existentialism that is reflected in Ruppersberg’s observation that “Art should be familiar and enigmatic, just as human beings themselves.” The vibrant backgrounds are also wittily evocative of the powerful compositions of mid-20th century abstract painter Mark Rothko.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by purchase, 2011; Greene Naftali Gallery, NY
Kristen Hileman, BMA, Contemporary Wing rotation, 1 May - 20 November 2013.

Inscribed: VERSO lower left, in graphite: "AR.88.973"

Markings: VERSO lower left, LANDFALL PRESS stamp

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Allen Ruppersberg and Landfall Press, Inc.
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My dear, since we won't have enough time to see everything in one day, you should look at the pictures on the right while I'll look at the ones on the left, and when we get home, we'll tell each other everything we saw.
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Lherbette. Deputy since ages and one of the few lucky ones who can rely on being reelected on the 13th of May. He just succeeds with everything. Only his name is not to his taste. He is also trying to give himself a distinct air.
1849
Allen Ruppersberg and Landfall Press, Inc.
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1988
Honoré Daumier
Charles Dupin. Called the Wise. One assumes that he knows everything, apart from how to bind a neck-tie.
1849
Allen Ruppersberg and Landfall Press, Inc.
Nothing/Nobody
1988
Honoré Daumier
What a fortunate encounter! It's my dear Stanislaus whom I haven't seen since we were in the sixth class together at Landernau.... in these times we used to share everything.... Things should be the same again, could you lend me 20 or 25 Francs?
1845
Allen Ruppersberg and Landfall Press, Inc.
Good Luck!
1988
Honoré Daumier
Ah, you are telling everything to the teacher aren't you.... well, tell him about this punch here!...
1846
Allen Ruppersberg and Landfall Press, Inc.
Nostalgia 24 Hours a Day
1988
Honoré Daumier
A good husband. - A total of 27 Fr. 50 Cts. - Very good. Take the bill to my wife who'll pay you... - (this right beggar Macaire isn't half content to have a wife to pay his debts!)... - Yes, I've an excellent wife who works like a slave, deprives herself of everything, who sacrifices her life for me... a wife who adores me. But I'm not ungrateful. She already has eight children and I'd like her to have twelve... - (Bertrand) There's a happy woman!!!
1837