The American West is not an immediate thought when considering New York-based artist and Velvet Underground buddy Andy Warhol, but an upcoming exhibit at St. Petersburg’s James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art shows his “surprising affinity for western motifs.”
“Warhol’s West”—a collaboration from Georgia’s Booth Western Art Museum and the Cochran Collection—brings to light the Pittsburg-born phenom’s “Cowboy and Indians” suite which includes images of Geronimo, Annie Oakley, Sitting Bull, and Theodore Roosevelt.
Though his subjects pivot from soup can and Marilyn Monroe portraits we’re used to, the pop artist’s work is “immediately recognizable, impressive, daring, inspirational, and sometimes confrontational.”
Warhol was known admirer of Russell Means, the first director of the American Indian Movement, a militant American Indian civil rights organization, and once made a Means portrait poster Warhol completed.
Malynda Washington, Community Engagement Manager at the museum, told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that an interactive element of "Warhol's West" will let guests use technology to create their own Warhol-esque pop-art, multiple-frame piece.
“Warhol’s West” opens at the James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art in St. Petersburg, Florida on Saturday, Oct. 2 and runs through Jan. 9. Members get access a day early, with a reception on Friday, Oct. 15.
Daily tickets cost $20 with discounts for children, seniors, active military and students.
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This article appears in Sep 16-22, 2021.