Ed Ruscha Hollywood Prints For Sale

Ed Ruscha first drew the Hollywood sign in 1967, and the following year translated it into a screenprint, an edition of 100 stretching the sign's letters low and wide across a glowing horizon, reading more as landscape than landmark. Asked about the sign, he said: "a smog indicator: if I could read it, the weather was OK." The series treats one of the most photographed symbols in America as simply another feature of the everyday Los Angeles skyline.

Two years later, Ruscha revisited the image with Pepto-Caviar Hollywood, a screenprint made using actual Pepto-Bismol and caviar in place of conventional ink. He is reported to have sent an assistant to a local grocery store to buy a single bottle of Pepto-Bismol as an experiment, and after the first proof succeeded, sent the assistant back to purchase a full case for the entire edition of 50. The result places the Hollywood sign against a soft pink field, an unusual combination of a pharmaceutical remedy and a luxury foodstuff standing in for paint, consistent with Ruscha's wider interest across his career in printing with unconventional substances, including chocolate syrup, gunpowder and egg yolk.

The sign's recurrence across Ruscha's paintings, drawings and prints over the following decades points to a conviction that the landscape of Los Angeles has always been shaped by film culture as much as by geography. Within the wider arc of Ruscha's career, these prints sit alongside Standard Station as among the images most responsible for defining his particular brand of West Coast Pop, both drawn from the built environment he passed constantly and both reduced to flat, graphic essentials that read instantly and reveal more the longer they are studied.

For more information or to buy Ed Ruscha Hollywood prints, contact our specialists via info@alexyellop.com. Discover more Ed Ruscha signed prints for sale or find out more about selling your Ruscha prints.

  • Ed Ruscha Hollywood Sign

    Explore Ruscha Hollywood Signs For Sale
    • Ed Ruscha, Hollywood (Orange and Brown), 1968
      Ed Ruscha, Hollywood (Orange and Brown), 1968
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    • Ed Ruscha, Pepto-Caviar Hollywood, 1970
      Ed Ruscha, Pepto-Caviar Hollywood, 1970
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    Discover landmark Ed Ruscha Prints
  • Ed Ruscha Holloywood series for sale

    Ed Ruscha Hollywood Market

    An Overview

    Hollywood (Orange and Brown), 1968 is among the most commercially prominent of Ruscha's prints, with examples achieving $107,950 (around £85,000) at Sotheby's in February 2025 and recorded results at the major houses reaching above £100,000. Pepto-Caviar Hollywood, 1970 has fewer than ten recorded auction appearances over more than two decades; the private market places examples in the region of £60,000, reflecting the work's rarity and the collector demand it attracts.

    The 1968 print is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and LACMA, among other major collections — an institutional presence that places it alongside Standard Station as among the most widely collected images in Ruscha's output. When it comes to market, demand tends to run well ahead of supply, and competition for examples in fine condition has been consistent across market cycles. Pepto-Caviar Hollywood is among the rarest works in the series — it seldom reaches the open market at any price, and the £60,000 private market level reflects genuine scarcity.

  • Ruscha Market Print Market In 2026

    The Ruscha Market in 2026

    An Overview

    Ed Ruscha has been one of the most consistent presences in the post-war auction market for over four decades. His imagery — word prints, gas stations, Hollywood, the American landscape — has proved as durable commercially as it has culturally, with collector demand holding firm across market cycles, generations and geographies. A retrospective at MoMA in 2023 and a major retrospective at LACMA in 2024 confirmed his standing among the most institutionally supported artists of his generation; his work is held by MoMA, the Tate, the Whitney, the Pompidou and LACMA, among dozens of other major collections worldwide. That longevity is reflected in the results: Standard Station, Ten-Cent Western Being Torn In Half sold for $68.26 million at Christie's New York in November 2024 — a 30% increase over the previous painting record — and since his earliest recorded auction sale in 1978, his market has grown consistently for nearly five decades across paintings, prints and works on paper.

    Within the print market, demand runs consistently ahead of supply: 83% of lots found buyers in 2024 and 43% sold above their high estimates across 127 transactions — a performance profile that few artists at any price point can match. His works have been offered at auction over 3,800 times historically, with collector interest distributed broadly across five decades of output. Standard Station screenprints carry specialist estimates of £400,000–£600,000 and appear infrequently — when examples do come to market, they attract serious competition. Colour Trial Proofs set new records at Phillips through 2024 and 2025; and the word prints of the late 1960s remain among the most actively traded prints in any specialist sale.

    The longevity of the market, the breadth of institutional support and the growing scarcity of key works at the top end of his catalogue make Ruscha one of the most compelling acquisitions available in post-war prints today.