NEW YORK, NY.- On July 11, ONE: A Global Sale of the 20th Century will be highlighted by Ed Ruscha’s groundbreaking early painting, Annie, 1962 (estimate: $20-30 million). Measuring nearly six feet tall, this large-scale canvas is an early example of what would become his signature style, and demonstrates the unique and pioneering approach to art that would make him one of the most celebrated artists of his generation. His seemingly simple aesthetic presents a completely novel way of looking at art and understanding its iconography.

Kat Widing, Specialist, Post-War and Contemporary Art, New York, remarked: "Christie's is thrilled to present Ed Ruscha's Annie as a top highlight of our new global 20th century sale. This spectacular painting has remained in the same private collection since 1987. Initially exhibited at the famed Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, Annie is an icon of 20th century art and a hallmark of Ruscha's career."

Inspired by the comic books featuring the popular children’s character, Annie is the first in a series of paintings that have formed the backbone of the artist’s career. It is also a motif that he has returned to again and again throughout his career, working with it in different mediums over a dozen times; from an early pencil drawing in 1961, to one of his famed liquid word paintings (Annie, Poured from Maple Syrup, 1966, Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena), and Annie—2008, the present painting has become one of Ruscha’s most iconic and enduring works.

Unlike the artist’s other paintings from this period in which he rendered words in utilitarian, industrial type, the contoured word ‘Annie’ is the first instance where the artist appropriated typography directly from a pop culture source, the comic strip Little Orphan Annie. The letter’s red, curvaceous outlines are encased in a black silhouette, providing both depth and structure.

By taking the typography of a popular comic strip as his source, Ruscha located Annie firmly within the Pop tradition. But, while on the East Coast Andy Warhol was painting his Coca-Cola Bottles and Roy Lichtenstein was rendering his comic book Kiss paintings, on the West Coast Ruscha was looking at the words and phrases in a different light, thinking about them beyond the physicality of the painted surface. So, unlike Warhol and Lichtenstein—whose early paintings of cartoon characters were inspired by the cultural ubiquity of those characters—Ruscha’s interest in the character of Annie herself is almost nonexistent. Completely expunged from the composition, he negates the figure of Annie, instead focusing solely on the formal qualities of the typography used to render her name.

Painted in 1962, Annie is one of Ed Ruscha’s earliest fully painted canvases. Executed in his favored 71 x 67 inch format, along with Actual Size, 1962 (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) and OOF, 1962-63 (Museum of Modern Art, New York), Annie has become a cornerstone of his career and is reproduced in countless catalogues of the artist’s work.

In 1963, Ruscha came to the attention of Irving Blum, the legendary dealer and owner of the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles. That same year, the gallery honored him with his first solo show, an exhibition in which Annie was included. Blum was immediately struck by Ruscha’s energy and originality, and speaking in 2002, Blum recalled that “[Ruscha] was doing fascinating work… and has gone on to have a really brilliant career.”

Annie marks a pivotal point in the artistic canon of the 20th century as the tradition of painting fought to maintain its relevance in light of the early beginnings of Pop Art. In works such as this, Ed Ruscha successfully connects the painterly tradition with the contemporary culture of advertising and mass-media.