Andy Warhol Cowboys and Indians
In 1986, the year before his death, Andy Warhol continued his appropriation of classic American icons and images with his "Cowboys and Indians" series, a portfolio of ten graphic screenprints representing traditional figures and figureheads of the American West. Here, Warhol intersperses recognizable portraits of well-known American "heroes"--John Wayne, Annie Oakley, Teddy Roosevelt, and General George Custer--with less familiar Native American images and motifs in his ironic commentary on Americans' collective mythicizing of the historic West. In "Cowboys and Indians," Warhol contrasts themes of notoreity and anonymity, authority and victimization, and rugged individualism versus perpetual stereotyping. Whether in the haughty self-assurance of "General Custer," the fierce stare of "Geronimo," or the noble, frozen visage captured on "Indian Head Nickel," Warhol's examination of our romantic visions of the past is vividly frank.
"Cowboys and Indians" possesses many of Andy Warhol's stylistic hallmarks, such as his characteristic linear reiteration and his use of famous images resonant in the collective American consciousness.
Thirty-six signed trial proofs include four additional prints: War Bonnet Indian, Buffalo Nickel, Action Picture, and Sitting Bull.
Each original "Cowboys and Indians" screenprint is 36 x36" unframed, and was printed by Rupert Jasen Smith, New York.
