Born in 1937 in Omaha, Nebraska, Edward Ruscha was raised in Oklahoma City before moving to Los Angeles in 1956 to study graphic design at the Chouinard Art Institute (now the California Institute of Arts). Ruscha came to prominence in the late 1950s when he began making small collages and went on to create graphic work combining the cityscape of his adopted hometown with vernacular language to communicate a particular urban experience.