Palmer Museum of Art
Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA
814.865.7672
Andy Warhol: Cowboys and
Indians
Andy Warhol
(1928-1987), America's king of Pop Art, became famous during the 1960s for
borrowing images from the mass media--from Campbell Soup can labels to movie
idols--and refashioning them into monumental paintings and silkscreen prints.
The artist's fascination with the famous and the infamous began when he
was a working-class kid living in Pittsburgh who dreamed about movie stars
and comic book heroes. After a successful career as a commercial artist
in New York City, Andy Warhol shocked the art world by appropriating these
popular advertising icons and presenting them as "art."
The
Cowboys and Indians portfolio of ten prints features well-known figures:
John Wayne and Teddy Roosevelt - -who are not so much "cowboys"
as American heroes, as well as less familiar images of Native Americans.
Geronimo faces the viewer with a mixture of rage, strength, and fear;
while the anonymous Mother and Child reveals a quiet resilience in
the face of encroaching authority. In Warhol's portfolio, Native Americans
and their artifacts are shown as fragile, in danger of being forgotten,
or in the case of Indian Head Nickel, of being perpetually stereotyped.
Cowboys and Indians forces us to question our notions of the "hero"
and "heroine" of the American West and to ponder their relationship
to the voiceless heroes of our Native American past. (left: John
Wayne, from Cowboys and Indians, 1986, Screen print, Private
collection)
Also on view in the Museum's Pincus Gallery of Contemporary
Art throughout the duration of the exhibition is Indian Country Today,
a provocative mixed media painting from 1996 by Native American artist and
Indian rights advocate Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. Literally mapping the tensions
between Native Americans and the dominant U.S. culture, Indian Country
Today provides a trenchant commentary on the historical and ongoing
relationship between "cowboys" and "Indians" in this
country, offering an important countervoice to Warhol's Pop Art vision.
Read more about the
exhibition.in the Museum's web article.
Read more about the Palmer
Museum of Art in Resource Library Magazine.
For further biographical information please see America's Distinguished Artists, a national
registry of historic artists.
rev. 12/30/10
Search Resource
Library for thousands of articles and essays on American art.
Copyright 2010 Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc., an Arizona nonprofit corporation. All rights
reserved.
The
Cowboys and Indians portfolio of ten prints features well-known figures:
John Wayne and Teddy Roosevelt - -who are not so much "cowboys"
as American heroes, as well as less familiar images of Native Americans.
Geronimo faces the viewer with a mixture of rage, strength, and fear;
while the anonymous Mother and Child reveals a quiet resilience in
the face of encroaching authority. In Warhol's portfolio, Native Americans
and their artifacts are shown as fragile, in danger of being forgotten,
or in the case of Indian Head Nickel, of being perpetually stereotyped.
Cowboys and Indians forces us to question our notions of the "hero"
and "heroine" of the American West and to ponder their relationship
to the voiceless heroes of our Native American past. (left: John
Wayne, from Cowboys and Indians, 1986, Screen print, Private
collection)