This print, titled Ship, depicts an iconic motif of Ed Ruscha’s six-decade career, and represents a shift in the American artist’s style and subject matter. Ruscha, a pioneer of the pop art movement, creates conceptual works often focused on American iconography, mythos, and meaning. In the mid-80s he created a series of paintings and prints cloaked in silhouette yet unmistakably depicting ships, animals, and signs. This Silhouette Series, which marked a departure from his language-based paintings, engages with the artist’s key themes through the evocative language of images, both hazy and distinct.