Andy Warhol Geronimo 1986 screenprint is a stunning portrait of the Apache leader and medicine man. He is commanding and gazes directly at the viewer with piercing eyes. His strong facial features are outlined in yellow contours. The fiery yellow, red, and deep purple in this image are made imposing by relatively little negative space.

Andy Warhol’s Geronimo, 1986 is taken from an original photo taken by Ben Wittick; the original photo shows Geronimo kneeling amongst shrubbery while holding a rifle. Warhol’s rendition crops the original image and centers his work on his face and thus, re-focuses the attention on Geronimo’s identity. Andy Warhol’s Geronimo, as part of the Cowboys and Indians series, investigates the ways that Native American history is constructed through media. Geronimo resisted forces that attempted to displace him and his people but was ultimately captured, living as a prisoner of war for the last two decades of his life. After capture, Geronimo’s history was distorted through portrayals in media that erased his resistance efforts. By putting Geronimo in conversation with figures such as General Custer and John Wayne, Warhol considers his relationship with both the military and the media.

Created in 1986, this color screenprint on Lenox Museum Board is hand signed in the lower left corner in pencil. It is a unique work of an edition of 250, published by Gaultney, Klineman Art Inc., New York and printed by Rupert Jason Smith, New York.

Andy Warhol Cowboys and Indians Series:

Andy Warhol’s Cowboys and Indians series of 1986 consists of ten prints each depicting their own respective subject—John Wayne, Annie Oakley, Kachina Dolls, Geronimo, Buffalo Nickel, Tonto, Theodore Roosevelt, General George Custer, Plains Indian Shield, and Northwest Coast Mask. Featuring images of famous American Western icons, Warhol’s series explores the relationship between Native Americans and Hollywood's portrayal of them in Western films. Warhol, being fascinated with celebrity culture, uses these famous figures to examine ways in which fame and popular culture intersect with history and myth.

The Cowboys and Indians series was also created during a time at which Warhol was exploring his own Native American heritage. His mother was of Ruthenian and Carpatho-Rusyn descent, but Warhol claimed that his father was of Slovakian and Native American ancestry.

Overall, the Cowboys and Indians series reflects Warhol's interest in American culture and history, as well as his fascination with celebrity and the intersection of art and commerce.

This screenprint is part of a portfolio of works Warhol created in 1986 titled Cowboys and Indians. Other works in the Cowboys and Indians Series include General Custer, Sitting Bull, Kachina Dolls, Geronimo, Annie Oakley, War Bonnet Indian, Buffalo Nickel, Action Picture, Northwest Coast Mask, Plains Indians Shield, Mother and Child, Indian Head Nickel, and Teddy Roosevelt.

Catalogue Raisonné & COA:
Andy Warhol, Geronimo, from the Cowboys and Indians Series, 1986 is fully documented and referenced in the below catalogue raisonnés and texts (copies will be enclosed as added documentation with the invoices that will accompany the sale of the work).

1. Feldman, Frayda and Jörg Schellmann. Andy Warhol Prints: A Catalogue Raisonné 1962 – 1987, 4^th Ed. New York: Distributed Art Publishers, Inc., 2003. Listed and illustrated as catalogue raisonné no. IIB.384.
2. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany this artwork.

About the Framing:
Andy Warhol Geronimo 1986 is framed to museum-grade, conservation standards, artist name title, year is presented in a complementary moulding and optical grade Plexiglas.