Colescott first visited Egypt in 1964, an important turning point in his life which would plant seeds he would harvest for years to come. Colescott felt liberated to embrace his African ancestry while living in Egypt, and was inspired by the depth of history that Africa had to offer.

“There were experiences there that I thought were fundamental to my art and identity. Some very positive things happened to me,” Colescott noted of his time abroad, “Walking down the street in Cairo was to be walking among people like myself. Everybody-the president of the country and on down-was a person of color.”

Considering the way in which figuration (in sculptures, reliefs, and murals) fluidly merged with the landscape at various historic sites throughout Egypt, Colescott began working on his “Valley Queens” series in 1964, named after the Valley of the Queens in Luxor, several hundred miles south of Cairo. This body of work—executed between 1964 and 1967—was part of his gradual maturation towards the iconic style he would become known for in the 1970s.

“The paintings created after his arrival in Egypt represented a breakthrough to, Colescott, since he was finally able to move beyond the works of his Portland [Oregan] period with their basis in direct visual experience,” notes the catalog for Robert Colescott: The Cairo Years, a 2021 exhibition at the American University in Cairo, “Colescott envisioned the contours of the red rock that contained the tombs taking on human shapes, so several of the paintings seem to represent female bodies emerging from or identified with the terrain.” At this same time, among other innovations in this period, Colescott became interested in painting figures he envisioned as Black people, but with painted white skin—a symbolic gesture about “passing” in his family. This motif would persist for decades to come.

Colescott returned to Egypt in 1967 for a prolonged stay, intending on being there for multiple years on a teaching position. He eagerly embraced the opportunity and shipped out two years work of art supplies in advance, knowing from his 1964 experience that if he wanted access to acrylic paints and vibrant colors, he would need to supply his own. Connecting deeply with how the contemporary artists of Cairo were bringing their own voice to modernism, Colescott continued to grow as an artist and even curated an exhibition of contemporary Egyptian work in his time there.

That time would be cut short, however, as the Six Day War was soon to break out, and his family would flee to Paris for safety. Colescott had previously lived in Paris, working in the Atelier of Fernand Léger, some twenty years prior. Reconsidering the influence of Léger on his practice, along with his lived experience in Egypt, set the stage Colescott’s subsequent creative developments.

“The paintings he made in Paris continued in the same vein as the Cairo paintings, except that he began to employ more of what he called “cartoonists’ tricks” in the delineation of the figures,” continues The Cairo Years Catalog, noting that the term “cartoonists’ tricks” was from a 1980 lecture given by Colescott, describing his late 1960s paintings. Audiences familiar with his subsequent developments would likely see the influence of cartooning as a final keystone in the lead up to his iconic, transgressive 1970s works.