Coyote

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"I don't have any Seine River like Monet. I just have U.S. 66 between Oklahoma and Los Angeles."

This statement by Ed Ruscha condenses the atmosphere of his work, all of which breathes the air of the American West. The Coyote serves as much as an idealised symbol for his America, the America of Jack Kerouac, J.Paul Getty and Clint Eastwood, as would Richard Prince’s cowboys or Jasper Johns’ Flag.

Ruscha’s early word paintings, Oof and Honk being famous examples, set the tone for his choice of and "predilection for monosyllabic, onomatopoeic words" which directly mimic the sounds they spell. Looking again at Coyote, we see that here, too, sound is implied by the animal’s posture. Rendered in the sprayed, black-and-white silhouette technique which the artist had explored from the mid-1980's, the image of Coyote is romantic and even somewhat cinematic in effect. An image which has been revisited in a number of works, the coyote recalls Ruscha’s Oklahoma roots, and may well be seen as something of a self-portrait.

"I don't have any Seine River like Monet. I just have U.S. 66 between Oklahoma and Los Angeles."

Coyote

Ed Ruscha

Artist: Ed Ruscha (b.1937)
Title: Coyote
Medium: Lithograph
Date: 1989
Sheet: 36 x 27 in : 91.4 x 68.6 cm. on Rives BFK 100% rag paper with torn and deckled edges
Edition: From the edition of 50, signed, dated and numbered by the artist
Publisher: Ed Ruscha, Los Angeles
Printer: Ed Hamilton, Hollywood
Notes: Single run one colour (black) print from a single aluminium plate
Literature: Engberg 169
Reference: C14-33