Special Collections and College Archives houses artwork by an Indigenous artist of Canada as well as artwork depicting Native American historic figures and tribal scenes.
Face to Face, Carl Beam and Andy Warhol
September 4 - November 10, 2018
Schmucker Art Gallery
Keira Koch ’19 examines representations of indigenous cultures in prints and photographs by American artist Andy Warhol and First Nations artist Carl Beam. In this comparative study, Koch considers the topic of appropriation and re-appropriation of Native imagery.
Warhol, as a non-Indigenous artist, is using this imagery to highlight the dominant narrative of the American West. Beam, however, incorporates photographs of Native subjects and traditional narratives by re-appropriating those images to tell a distinctly Native narrative.
This exhibition invites discussion about the role of contemporary indigenous artists and how indigenous identities are expressed in contemporary art. This exhibition intersects with the issues and methodologies studied in Koch’s individualized major titled “Indigenous Cultures, History and Identity.” In addition to studying aboriginal arts and indigenous communities in Australia during her Junior year, Koch serves as the Co-President of Students for Indigenous Awareness at Gettysburg College.
Special Collections houses lithographs and engravings, both as single artworks and inside our rare books. These images can be found physically in Special Collections and virtually in our GettDigital Collections.
In the early 19th century, Charles Bird King painted Indigenous leaders from over twenty tribes. His portraits were then reproduced as hand-colored lithographs in Thomas McKenney and James Hall’s three-volume series, History of the Indian Tribes of North America, published in 1837.
Browse the lithographs in GettDigital
Push-ma-ta-ha, a Choctaw Warrior
Sitting Bull by Andy Warhol
The Columbian Suite by Carl Beam