The term Pop Art was invented in the 60s; it’s a term that comes from both contemporary pop culture and the power of images. Substantially linked to the consumer society, pop art uses this as its main source of inspiration, often in an ironic way. Andy Warhol would become the king of this. Warhol style is three things: bright colors, graphic technique, and a close-up subject. With his serigraphy procedure, he desacralized images, icons; he desacralized art itself by making his work reproducible. In this way, Warhol’s work tells the story of the world as it was in the 70s and 80s. His objective was simple: popularize and commercialize contemporary art, thus making it accessible to everyone. Fascinated by tribal artifacts, Andy Warhol would lock onto emblematic figure Russel Means, a defender of Native American rights. What the artist wanted: to fixate on the image itself and not the reality behind the image. In 1986, he painted what is thought to be his last series: Cowboys and Indians, conceived as a panorama.
The exhibit Cowboys and Indians sheds a light on the artist’s political side: making art something accessible to everyone with a profound message. So, when Andy Warhol started leaning towards this series of paintings in 1986, it was with the idea that works of art could communicate more about the values of tribal aesthetics than the cowboys of the old West could. This series is composed of 10 contrasting large format screen prints where Warhol calls out to icons of American pop culture – Annie Oakley, General Custer, John Wayne, and Teddy Roosevelt – to oppose them with authentic images of Native Americans with a Warhol touch – Mother and Child, Kachina Dolls, Northwest Coast Masks… Finally, the exhibit is based around eclecticism, one of the artist’s spearheads. To admire these recent acquisitions, head to the Tamastslikt Cultural Institute in Pendleton, Oregon between August 23rd and October 26th.
Leave a Reply