With its cherry red finish and bold typeface, Ed Ruscha’s iconic painting is so distinctive that it practically bursts from its canvas.
The tempera and ink “Radio in Red” depicts the single word “RADIO” as if it were floating on paper measuring 14 x 11.25 inches. Ruscha created the art piece in 1963.
The painting by the American pop artist will be auctioned this Thursday by the estate of Barbara and Tom Rounds. They too, have a radio connection.
The late Tom “T.R.” Rounds was co-creator and producer of the radio countdown program “American Top 40 with Casey Kasem.
According to a press release announcing the auction, the Rounds were originally given Ruscha’s painting in 1969 by a friend as a token of appreciation following the Miami Pop Festival, which Rounds produced.
Christie’s in New York City estimates the paintings value at $500,000 to $700,000 in U.S. dollars, according to the auction house.
The item will be part of a live Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale, held live and online in New York on May 21.
AT40 launch
Tom Rounds is described as a “radio broadcasting innovator” who went to work as a newsman at WINS(AM) in New York City, then moved to Honolulu as afternoon disc jockey and program director for KPOI(FM), and on to KFRC(FM) in San Francisco.
At KFRC, where he was program director, Rounds produced the Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival in 1967.
The festival featured acts including Jefferson Airplane, The 5th Dimension, and the Doors, and is considered the first Rock festival in history. When Rounds left KFRC for L.A. in 1967, it was featured on the front cover of the first issue of Rolling Stone magazine.
In 1969, Rounds co-founded Watermark, Inc., a radio production and syndication company that created a variety of music programs distributed to stations throughout North America.
In 1970 with Casey Kasem and Don Bustany, he headed the team that launched and marketed “American Top 40” with Kasem. By the 1980s, the program reached audiences at over 500 radio stations in the U.S., according to the release.
After ABC acquired Watermark in 1982, Rounds started Radio Express with ABC as its first program supplier. He remained CEO until his death in 2014, at the age of 77.
He received a Legends induction into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2023.
Changing nature of language
The artist, Ed Ruscha, is known to be an important figure in contemporary art.
He has lived and worked in the L.A. area for over sixty years.
“Through his innovative approach to painting, drawing, and photography, Ruscha has influenced artists worldwide,” the release said.
It continues: “Paramount to Ruscha’s work is that the changing nature of language – as its meaning shifts as a function of font, color, composition and other visual effects – can be a subject for painting and drawing.”
Ruscha often repeated the same phrase or word in artworks over the course of many years, according to the press release, as he did with RADIO. The RADIO series included “Radio on Royal Blue” in 1963 and “Hurting Word Radio #2” in 1964.
“Ruscha’s interest in language is frequently coupled with an interest in landscape, especially that of the American west. His words appear on road signs, buildings, and mountains, and across open skies and horizons,” the release said.
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