Corso Dell'impero

Edward Ruscha, Donna M. De Salvo, Joan Didion, Linda Norden, Frances Stark

Hatje Cantz, 2005 - Art - 64 pages

Inspired by the symmetrical, Jeffersonian layout of the American Pavilion's Neoclassical architecture, and by Thomas Cole's cycle of the same name, Ed Ruscha installed this ten-painting exhibition titled Course of Empire at the 2005 Venice Biennale. Five pieces are painted in color and five in black and white. The artist paired each work from his 1992 Blue Collar series with a new color canvas depicting the future of the same urban landscape, some deteriorated, some growing and changing, some seemingly gentrifying. The exhibition will travel in 2006 to The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Essays from Linda Norden, the U.S. Commissioner for the Venice Biennale, and artist Frances Stark celebrate the work, while Joan Didion's coolly written but deeply felt piece about her own brokenhearted longing for Los Angeles hits a perfect note.

About the author

Born in Sacramento, California, on December 5, 1934, Joan Didion received a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1956. Joan Didion wrote for Vogue from 1956 to 1963, and was visiting regent's lecturer in English at the University of California, Berkeley in 1976. Didion also publishes novels, short stories, social commentary, and essays. Her work often comments on social disorder. Didion wrote for years on her native California; from there her perspective broadened and turned to the countries of Central America and Southeast Asia. Her novels include Democracy (1984) and The Last Thing He Wanted (1996). Well known nonfiction titles include Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968) and The White Album (1979). In 1971 Joan Didion was nominated for the National Book Award in fiction for Play It As It Lays. In 1981 she received the American Book Award in nonfiction, and was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Prize in nonfiction for The White Album.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Corso Dell'impero; Volume 51 of Biennale di Venezia
• Authors: Edward Ruscha, Donna M. De Salvo, Joan Didion, Linda Norden, Frances Stark
• author of text accompanying photos: Donna M. De Salvo, Joan Didion
• Illustrated by: Edward Ruscha
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Hatje Cantz, 2005
• Original from: the University of Michigan
• Digitized: Nov 14, 2007
• ISBN: 3775716548, 9783775716543
• Length: 64 pages
• Subjects: Art / American / General; Art / Collections, Catalogs, Exhibitions / General; Art / Criticism & Theory; Art / History / Modern (late 19th Century to 1945); Art / Individual Artists / General; Art / Sculpture & Installation