The End #8

An early example of Ed Ruscha’s The End paintings, this work evokes the spirit of old and new technology. Mimicking the closing titles from a classic movie, the artist presents the final frame in Old English gothic script, complete with the scratches, scrapes and dust particles that are inherent to the medium of celluloid. The choice of script is important, and although he has used other fonts Ruscha has acknowledged that this is one of his favorites. “For a long time, I’d been intrigued by Old English lettering, he has said “Tattoo artists and gangsters in prison use this lettering… I always found this typeface kind of amusing in that it’s meant to be formal and old and churchlike. The Bible used to be printed this way… It has a hangover with the past” (E. Ruscha, Edward Ruscha Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings Volume Four: 1988-1992, New York, 2009, p. 338). By using this historic font in a more contemporary context, the artist has described this as “an illusion of an out-of-sync mode,” wondering how, in the future, when celluloid has been consigned to the history books, people won’t understand the context of the aesthetic that he so perfectly replicates, “That could disturb me, but I’m not going to let it” (Ibid.).   An early example of Ed Ruscha’s The End paintings, this work evokes the spirit of old and new technology. Mimicking the closing titles from a classic movie, the artist presents the final frame in Old English gothic script, complete with the scratches, scrapes and dust particles that are inherent to the medium of celluloid. The choice of script is important, and although he has used other fonts Ruscha has acknowledged that this is one of his favorites. “For a long time, I’d been intrigued by Old English lettering, he has said “Tattoo artists and gangsters in prison use this lettering… I always found this typeface kind of amusing in that it’s meant to be formal and old and churchlike. The Bible used to be printed this way… It has a hangover with the past” (E. Ruscha, Edward Ruscha Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings Volume Four: 1988-1992, New York, 2009, p. 338). By using this historic font in a more contemporary context, the artist has described this as “an illusion of an out-of-sync mode,” wondering how, in the future, when celluloid has been consigned to the history books, people won’t understand the context of the aesthetic that he so perfectly replicates, “That could disturb me, but I’m not going to let it” (Ibid.).