Andy Warhol Teddy Roosevelt (1986) is a portrayal of a young Teddy Roosevelt wearing military uniform. His face is dark and reveals relatively little detail; his facial features are only delineated by pink contours that vaguely define his eyes, glasses, nose, mouth, and mustache. His uniform is also dark, creating the sense that he is more of a silhouette than a man.

Teddy Roosevelt is an All-American icon in multiple capacities; he is especially known for his role as a military leader and as the twenty-sixth president of the United States. Roosevelt also had a long history of animosity toward Native Americans; Andy Warhol’s Teddy Roosevelt explores this history by juxtaposing him with Native American figures such as in Mother and Child and Geronimo in the Cowboys and Indians series. By portraying him in uniform, Warhol’s Teddy Roosevelt reminds the viewer of his military affiliations and gives him an unapproachable, hostile appearance. Paired with his shadowy appearance, Andy Warhol’s Teddy Roosevelt displays his questionable relationship with Native populations and places doubt into a common understanding of him as a hero.

Created in 1986, Andy Warhol’s Teddy Roosevelt is a color screenprint on Lenox Museum Board and is hand signed in the lower right corner in pencil. A unique work inscribed ‘TP’ (trial proof) and numbered from the edition of 36 unique trial proofs; 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, Teddy Roosevelt, 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.386.
2. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany this artwork.

About the Framing:
Framed to museum-grade, conservation standards, Andy Warhol Teddy Roosevelt, from the Cowboys and Indians Series, 1986 is presented in a complementary moulding and finished with silk-wrapped mats and optical grade Plexiglas.