Andy Warhol Plains Indian Shield (F & S II.382) For Sale

One of Andy Warhol's ten graphic screen prints from his Cowboys and Indians portfolio (v1986) is Plains Indian Shield. This picture depicts a typical Native American shield with a vibrant design of two big buffaloes getting ready to fight, in contrast to the other prints in the series that include portraits of Native Americans and well-known stars from Western films. In Native American culture, particularly that of the Great Plains, these shields are valued items that serve as symbols of family identification and provide both material and spiritual protection. Warhol uses five prints to represent the "Cowboys" and five prints to symbolise the "Indians" in the Cowboys and Indians portfolio to depict the conflict between European settlers and Native Americans. The portfolio's symmetry casts the West in a conflictual light and designates each print as an adversary. In other words, Warhol's portrayal of the West is theatrical rather than historically authentic; this is evident in his work. Rather, Warhol aims to reflect the images of the West that we associate with popular culture and the media.

Warhol draws the shield in Plains Indian Shield 382 using a subdued pop colour scheme of orange, teal, and mustard. He uses both black and white to outline the details, which gives the print a three-dimensional appearance. Two buffalos facing each other with their heads meeting in the centre of the circle make up the design of his shield, with a vivid orange feather dangling off it. Warhol's rendition of a classic Native American shield can be seen in Plains Indian Shield 382. Great Plains tribes were often armed with these shields. Native American tribes typically fashioned the shields out of buffalo hides stretched over wooden hoops that were handcrafted. They were frequently painted with geometric designs and animals, and embellished with feathers. The shields had utilitarian and religious functions. To take pictures of Native American artefacts for the prints in the Cowboys and Indians portfolio that were influenced by Native American culture, Warhol went to the National Museum of the American Indian in New York City. The Plains Indian Shield, the Northwest Coast Mask, and the Kachina Dolls were all inspired by these photos.

Warhol depicts a Native American cultural sign in this piece, but in the manner of the commercialised West. Warhol offers a startling look at how Native American culture is portrayed in mainstream media by contrasting the real with the fictional. In his Cowboys and Indians series, Warhol juxtaposes photographs of well-known Western characters with less well-known, real Native American iconography. Warhol condenses a whole culture and way of life into a single symbolic image by drawing inspiration from concepts of the mass-produced screen print and placing the shield against a stark white background. The Plains Indian Shield is a historical portrayal of a Plains Indian artefact intended to satirically address common perceptions of the American West as they are portrayed in Western motion pictures.

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