Art Beat: Warhol and the West

When the Booth Western Art Museum opened in Cartersville, Georgia, in 2003, one of the jewels of the institution’s permanent collection was a set of 14 screenprints by modern art master Andy Warhol. Ten of these prints would eventually become one of Warhol’s final masterpieces, a series titled Cowboys and Indians, featuring bold depictions of heroes of the West including icons such as John Wayne, Annie Oakley, and Geronimo as well as symbolic objects like an Indian Head nickel, a Northwest Coast mask, and kachina dolls. The Booth has never exhibited the entire collection together, preferring to feature the pieces in rotation, never more than four to six at a time.

That has changed as all 10 prints plus four others that Warhol considered for inclusion in the final series will be on display until the end of 2019 as the centerpiece of an extensive exhibition, Warhol and the West, which will then travel to the Tacoma Art Museum in Washington and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City as part of an 18-month tour.

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Warhol has been an obsession for Booth Western Art Museum executive director Seth Hopkins. “This exhibit has taken 16 years to organize,” he explains. “I wrote my master's thesis about how the West was a constant influence on Warhol throughout his life and artistic career.” Hopkins points to Warhol’s years as a collector of Western artifacts, and many pieces of the artist’s collection are featured as part of Warhol and the West. From his childhood movie-star scrapbook featuring famous movie cowboys like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers to five pairs of his beloved Lucchese cowboy boots (some splattered with paint from his studio), the exhibition features more than 100 pieces that help put Cowboys and Indians in context. Displays also include movie still and clips from two avant-garde westerns that Warhol filmed, Horse and Lonesome Cowboys.

The entire exhibition is a well-documented and exhilarating trip through the mind of a genius artist and the region of America that inspired him. “This is the most expensive and complicated exhibit ever at the Booth,” shares Hopkins. “I’m thrilled to present a new work contextualized with American Western art.”

Warhol and the West runs December 31, 2019, at the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Georgia. It will be on display at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City from January 31, 2020 to May 10, 2020, at the Tacoma Art Museum in Washington beginning July 1, 2020,

Photography: (featured) Cowboys and Indians: Annie Oakley, 1986 Screenprint on Lenox museum board Edition 55/250 36 × 36 inches, Collection Booth Western Art Museum © 2019 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, ; (slideshow) Cowboys and Indians: Teddy Roosevelt, 1986, Screenprint on Lenox museum board, Edition 55/250, 36 × 36 inches, Collection Booth Western Art Museum, © 2019 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, Cowboys and Indians: Action Picture, 1986 Screenprint on Lenox, museum board Trial proof 13/36 36 × 36 inches, Booth Western Art Museum, © 2019 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, Cowboys and Indians: Annie Oakley, 1986 Screenprint on Lenox museum board Edition 55/250 36 × 36 inches, Collection Booth Western Art Museum © 2019 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, Endangered Species: Bald Eagle, 1983 Screenprint on Lenox museum board, 38 × 38 inches Artist’s proof 21/30, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., 1998.1.2466.4, © 2019 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, Endangered Species: Bighorn Ram, 1983 Screenprint on Lenox museum board, 38 × 38 inches Artist’s proof 21/30, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., 998.1.2466.10, © 2019 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, Cowboys and Indians: General Custer, 1986 Screenprint on Lenox, museum board Edition 55/250 36 × 36 inches, Collection Booth Western Art Museum, © 2019 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, Cowboys and Indians: Mother and Child, 1986 Screenprint on Lenox, museum board Edition 55/250 36 × 36 inches, Collection Booth Western Art Museum, © 2019 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, Cowboys and Indians: Northwest Coast Mask, 1986, Screenprint on Lenox museum board Edition 55/250, 36 × 36 inches, Collection Booth Western Art Museum, © 2019 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, Cowboys and Indians: Kachina Dolls, 1986, Screenprint on Lenox museum board, Edition 55/250, 36 × 36 inches, Collection Booth Western Art Museum, © 2019 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, Myths: Howdy Doody, 1981, Screenprint with diamond dust on Lenox museum board, 38 1⁄16 × 38 inches Artist’s proof 10/30, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., 1998.1.2452.6, © 2019 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York