NARRATOR:

This painting titled the End of the Trail by Robert Colescott brings a biting, humorous twist to the cultural history of the American West. In this 1976 work he depicts a dark-skinned figure sitting on a horse. They are posed in front of a sunset rendered in acidic shades of purple, blue and yellow. While the figure and the horse both look dejectedly downward, there’s definitely a sense of mischief in the air.

Colescott based the painting on a bronze sculpture, also called “The End of the Trail,” by James Frasier. The sculpture was originally displayed in San Francisco’s 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition. It symbolized the defeat of the Native American population by European Americans who had conquered the West. Curator, Janet Bishop:

JANET BISHOP:

What Colescott has done in this painting, is use the James Frasier bronze sculpture as a taking-off point. The figure is very similar in composition, but you can see that there’s an element of What’s Wrong With This Picture? The dark-skinned figure in Colescott’s painting is shown wearing bright, white contemporary jockey shorts and tennis shoes, and rather than looking down in a defeated way, he sort of turns up at the viewer and grins, in a manner that might suggest that he’s up to something.

NARRATOR:

Here the artist plays with the stereotypical Western image of a defeated native. Like many of Colescott’s paintings from the 1970s, “End of the Trail” is a highly satirical look at race from an African American perspective.