Andy Warhol Mother and Child (1986) shows a Native American woman carrying her son on her back, his eyes closed and his head resting on the back of her neck. They are both wrapped in textiles of rich green and red. A saturated pink dominates this work, creating a sharp distinction between the figures and their stark background.

Andy Warhol’s Mother and Child is the only work in Warhol’s Cowboys and Indians series that features two Native American figures; in the midst of a series that is largely composed of singular figures associated with the American West, Andy Warhol’s Mother and Child uses an important familial relationship as a reminder of the humanity and community in Native American culture that is hidden behind these celebrity personas. Andy Warhol’s Mother and Child is taken from a postcard photograph image entitled “’Bright Eyes’ Squaw and Papoose.” By appropriating the image from a postcard, Warhol also plays with the idea of how ideas about the West are created and questions what kinds of images are being spread.

Created in 1986, Andy Warhol Mother and Child screenprint on Lenox Museum Board is hand signed in the lower left corner in pencil. A unique work inscribed ‘TP’ (trial proof) and numbered from 36; aside from the edition of 250; published by Gaultney-Klineman Art Inc., New York; printed Rupert Jasen 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, Mother and Child, 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.383.
2. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany this artwork.

About the Framing:
Framed to museum-grade, conservation standards, Andy Warhol Mother and Child, 1986 is presented in a complementary moulding and finished with silk-wrapped mats and optical grade Plexiglas.