The End #1 (1993) belongs to a series of paintings, drawings and prints by Edward Ruscha that feature the text ‘The End’. These artworks, produced during the 1990s and 2000s, were inspired by the memory and history of cinema. Since Ruscha’s move to Los Angeles in 1956, the city and its film industry have played a central part in his art. Artworks like the paintings Large Trademark with Eight Spotlights (1962), Hollywood (1969) and the photo book, Every Building on the Sunset Strip (1966) drew inspiration from the city’s landscape and its role in creating Hollywood myth and fantasy. For the series, provoked by his personal memories of watching movies and going to the cinema, Ruscha chose to single out the final frame of the movie. By choosing to depict the cinematic version of the final curtain, the series touches upon concepts of finality. However for Ruscha, the idea of ‘The End’ is not necessarily negative, it serves more as a signifier for change – a simple sign that the movie is no longer rolling.

The End #1 is a small monochrome painting, which depicts a split second of a film projection between two successive frames. The two frames split by a white line show cropped letters of the phrase ‘The End’ painted in a Gothic style font. The grey surfaces are covered with small marks and blemishes, like the ones seen during the projection of a degraded film. The artist emphasized the flaws in cinema, the small zips, scratches and blemishes on a film reel. Ruscha chose to concentrate on the imperfections that film producers tried to obscure and hide, explaining how there is beauty in the aging of things. The text ‘The End’ signifies more than the ending of a movie, it suggests the ending of a chapter in cinema history. The painting conveys a sense of nostalgia for a film technology that became obsolete and forgotten. The artist memorializes this in The End #1, fully aware that future audiences might not understand the idea behind the painting, since there will be no more scratches on film.

In his analysis of the The End series, art curator, Ralph Rugoff argued that these paintings are part of Ruscha’s broader engagement with themes of decline and decay. Paintings like The End #1, The End (1991) and The Final End (1992) explore the reality of material decay, how time and natural conditions affect the projected image. Because of its smooth surface, The End #1 was likely spray painted with an airbrush. Although Ruscha initially hated the airbrush, and felt it was incompatible with fine art, he began experimenting with the technique in the 1980s. He found the style unique, and called it ‘strokeless painting’ because of the flat and smooth finish the technique achieved. The straight lines around the edges and across the canvas were probably made with the help of masking tape, a method Ruscha used for another painting of the series, The Final End.