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Lot Essay
End, 1993, comes from a series of works by Ed Ruscha that incorporates the single word ‘End’ or two-word single-syllable phrase ‘The End,’ which combines the artist’s fascination with typography and his career-spanning interest in the burgeoning imagery and sentiment of Hollywood and cinematic culture. The series dates back as far as the early 1980s, and each work uniquely taps into the glamour and nostalgia of the Hollywood aesthetic. Another example from the series, The End #1, 1991 is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
The present work captures a particularly striking image of the enigmatic and sentimental mood of “old-school” Hollywood. The word ‘End’ rests near center in the canvas, just as it would in the final still of a traditional Hollywood film screening. The strikingly bright white and clean lines of the upper edge and gothic-style font are in direct juxtaposition with the ominous and gradient background, which fades from gray to black. The viewer is brought to the edge of their seats, evoking the same heart wrench a movie-goer experiences when the film reel cuts to credits; the show is over.
The present work, and the series it belongs to, not only speaks to the artist’s rich exploration of the very layered history of visual and popular culture and the development of graphic design over the 20th century, but is also a melancholic telling—an homage—to the traditional film technologies that were quickly becoming obsolete. Speaking about his work, the artist explained: “I have always operated on a kind of waste-retrieval method. I retrieve and renew things that have been forgotten or wasted” (E. Ruscha, quoted in B. Brunon, “Interview with Edward Ruscha,” in Edward Ruscha exh. cat., Octobre des Arts, Lyon, 1985, p. 95). As technology advanced, the traditional Hollywood film was becoming a figment of the past. Taking it a step further, Ruscha’s use of a particularly historic Old-English style typography draws on an even deeper lineage to the past and highlights the visual tropes from earlier centuries. The present work is not only a testimony to the allure and glamour of traditional cinematic culture, but equally a melancholic resurrection of what the artist perceived as forgotten in visual and popular culture, and how the celebrated traditional Hollywood cinema was itself rooted in a much deeper visual history and cultural identity of the past.
It is prudent that Ruscha’s work be discussed within the context of its creation. Working on the West Coast, the artist composed his paintings, drawings, prints, and artist books thousands of miles from the New York Pop and Conceptual artists. Intertwined with both movements, and addressable in conversations about their broader impact, Ruscha’s works are nevertheless separate from those of Warhol, Joseph Kosuth, and their compatriots. Existing in the same Californian air as David Hockney (who moved there in 1963), a certain West Coast sensibility is palpable. The Hollywood sign emerges frequently in the artist’s oeuvre (as in his Hollywood Study works in the late 1960s and Hollywood of 1984), and references to the Sunset Strip and an abundance of sun-drenched clouds abound. Instead of illustrating the West Coast landscape, the present work and the series it belongs to references the visual landscape of cinema that the West Coast is most famous for.
"Vital art is made out of things that the general population has overlooked. The things that are forgotten and thrown away are the things that eventually come around and cry for attention. The artist sees the possibilities in things that are overlooked. Seeing the electric vibrancy in something that is so dead. The forgotten things are a source for food" (E. Ruscha cited in K. Brougher, "Words as Landscape", Ed Ruscha, exh. cat., Hirshhorn Museum, 2000, p. 161).
The present work captures a particularly striking image of the enigmatic and sentimental mood of “old-school” Hollywood. The word ‘End’ rests near center in the canvas, just as it would in the final still of a traditional Hollywood film screening. The strikingly bright white and clean lines of the upper edge and gothic-style font are in direct juxtaposition with the ominous and gradient background, which fades from gray to black. The viewer is brought to the edge of their seats, evoking the same heart wrench a movie-goer experiences when the film reel cuts to credits; the show is over.
The present work, and the series it belongs to, not only speaks to the artist’s rich exploration of the very layered history of visual and popular culture and the development of graphic design over the 20th century, but is also a melancholic telling—an homage—to the traditional film technologies that were quickly becoming obsolete. Speaking about his work, the artist explained: “I have always operated on a kind of waste-retrieval method. I retrieve and renew things that have been forgotten or wasted” (E. Ruscha, quoted in B. Brunon, “Interview with Edward Ruscha,” in Edward Ruscha exh. cat., Octobre des Arts, Lyon, 1985, p. 95). As technology advanced, the traditional Hollywood film was becoming a figment of the past. Taking it a step further, Ruscha’s use of a particularly historic Old-English style typography draws on an even deeper lineage to the past and highlights the visual tropes from earlier centuries. The present work is not only a testimony to the allure and glamour of traditional cinematic culture, but equally a melancholic resurrection of what the artist perceived as forgotten in visual and popular culture, and how the celebrated traditional Hollywood cinema was itself rooted in a much deeper visual history and cultural identity of the past.
It is prudent that Ruscha’s work be discussed within the context of its creation. Working on the West Coast, the artist composed his paintings, drawings, prints, and artist books thousands of miles from the New York Pop and Conceptual artists. Intertwined with both movements, and addressable in conversations about their broader impact, Ruscha’s works are nevertheless separate from those of Warhol, Joseph Kosuth, and their compatriots. Existing in the same Californian air as David Hockney (who moved there in 1963), a certain West Coast sensibility is palpable. The Hollywood sign emerges frequently in the artist’s oeuvre (as in his Hollywood Study works in the late 1960s and Hollywood of 1984), and references to the Sunset Strip and an abundance of sun-drenched clouds abound. Instead of illustrating the West Coast landscape, the present work and the series it belongs to references the visual landscape of cinema that the West Coast is most famous for.
"Vital art is made out of things that the general population has overlooked. The things that are forgotten and thrown away are the things that eventually come around and cry for attention. The artist sees the possibilities in things that are overlooked. Seeing the electric vibrancy in something that is so dead. The forgotten things are a source for food" (E. Ruscha cited in K. Brougher, "Words as Landscape", Ed Ruscha, exh. cat., Hirshhorn Museum, 2000, p. 161).