On View
Not on viewObject number1992/3.16
General Custer
Artist
Andy Warhol
(American, 1928-1987)
Date1986
Mediumscreenprint
Dimensionsimage: 35 × 35 in. (88.9 × 88.9 cm)
frame: 42 3/4 × 42 3/4 × 1 1/4 in. (108.6 × 108.6 × 3.2 cm)
frame: 42 3/4 × 42 3/4 × 1 1/4 in. (108.6 × 108.6 × 3.2 cm)
Credit LineArt Auction Fund
Exhibition HistoryUnknown Exhibition from KIA Permanent Collection, Art Center of Battle Creek (Jan. 22 - Mar. 28, 2001).
"Large Format Works on Paper," KIA Galleries 3&4 (June 27 - Sept. 2, 2003).
"Highlights of the KIA Permanent Collection, (purchased with Auction funds)," KIA Gallery 5 (Sept. 9 - Oct. 14, 2006).
Double Take: Artists Respond to the Collection, KIA, August 23, 2014 - January 18, 2015.
"Unmasking Masculinity for the 21st Century," KIA Galleries 2-5 (September 24, 2022 - December 29, 2022)
Label TextAny image in the American visual landscape was a potential subject of pop artist Andy Warhol. Originally a graphic artist, Warhol believed that art was a product that could be created quickly and commercially. His studio, called "The Factory," employed many assistants who would produce up to 80 objects a day based on Warhol's designs. Warhol often worked with screenprinting, a commercial mechanical process used in advertising, to transfer a photograph to another surface and create large series of images.
General Custer was an unusual choice of subject matter for Warhol, who usually paid homage to contemporary pop culture figures like Elvis and Marilyn Monroe. Drawing from a familiar photograph of the subject, Warhol isolates the figure against a stark black background which flattens the image and makes it look as if it has appeared out of a great void. Floating in space, it has an almost ethereal quality. Warhol gives Custer a modern look and appeal by using bright primary colors and neon-like highlights, thus raising the 19th century hero to the status of popular icon.
