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9/6/2008

Andy Warhol

Mark Ransom, London

Fourteen images serve as the basis for Warhol’s “Cowboys and Indians” series, comprising drawings, paintings, edition and unique prints. American figures such as General Custer and John Wayne share an uneasy proximity to iconic images of Native Americans; popularised photographic portraits of each, ratified and in some cases commissioned by the sitter, expand in meaning in Warhol’s skilled reproductions.

Shown here is a selection of popular images of the Indian players from American mythology. Figures from history such as Geronimo, an Apache chief rendered stateless by the US government, become especially eloquent – as an exiled embarrassment, recuperating from a sentence of hard labour, the authorities allowed him to sell photographs of himself as a means of support. This is the image that Warhol uses, yet cropped in such a way that his original pose – a scowl with a rifle resting on a bare knee – becomes merely a face that appears more on the verge of tears than full of defiance, as originally intended.

The irony of depicting the noble profile of an Indian “brave” on the coinage of the conquering country is strengthened by the word “Liberty”, outlined potently in a block of colour near the edge of a five-cent piece. “Indian Head Nickel”, a print of a coin of a mass-produced sterotype of a dwindling race, is a subtle yet scathing comment on the value of fame for the marginalized Native-American Everyman. A portrait of a young Teddy Roosevelt in uniform created for the series, not featured here, is suggestive – his famous quotation of an African saying, “Speak softly and carry a big stick” has clearly been taken to heart by Warhol.


Mark Ransom
62 Pimlico Road, London
10 - 6 mon – sat

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