Business Cards 1968

Editor: This mixed media piece, “Business Cards” by Edward Ruscha, seems to blend photography with a kind of personal scrapbook aesthetic. There's a snapshot dated January 3, 1968, mounted on what looks like a wood panel. What strikes me is the casualness, the almost anti-art quality. What do you make of it? Curator: It's a fascinating artifact of its time, isn't it? Ruscha is playing with the idea of art as a commodity and its circulation within social circles. The business card exchange, the signed dedication, all point to the performative aspect of the art world. Who gets access, who is remembered? Editor: So, it’s less about the image itself and more about the social rituals it represents? Curator: Precisely. Consider the date, 1968. Think of the social upheavals, the questioning of institutions. Ruscha’s work asks: What role do artists and their creations play in this changing landscape? Is art truly democratic, or is it still bound by power structures? Editor: That reframes my thinking entirely. I was focused on the style, but it’s the social commentary that resonates. Curator: Exactly! It reveals how art itself can function as a social currency.