Fusing cinematic culture, modern-day cowgirls and tongue-in-cheek humour, Billy Schenck – also known as the ‘Warhol of the West’ takes viewers on an exhilarating trek through Western mythology.
Bringing his art to the UK for the first time ever in November 2018, the real-life ranch sorting world champion promises to expose viewers to a reimagined Western narrative. Greek mythology clashes with irony, apocalyptic imagery and sexual tension for a collection that brazenly expands the limits of the genre. Billy’s work is characterised by its scorching colour palette, surreal juxtapositions and cinematic composition.
Reproduced in a flattened, reductivist style he illustrates what Southwest Art magazine terms ‘a stance…a pendulum between the romantic and the irreverent’. With accomplished use of chiaroscuro, Billy projects photographs from Western movie stills and fills the outlines with flat, hard-edged areas of colour. This, in his own words, produces “a perfect marriage of photorealism and a paint-by-number system”.
His fiery horizons and landscapes are formed from distinct geographical locations and his childhood memories of summers spent in the high deserts of Wyoming. This curious mixture of real and imaginary, past and present is what defines the Kansas City Art Institute graduate. Through his exploration of mythical Western archetypes – including the lonesome cowboy and stoic Native American – Billy both celebrates and pokes fun at the subject.
Born in Ohio in 1947, Billy Schenck became passionate about art as a child. Influenced by cartoons, he drew Walt Disney’s Donald Duck and characters from the American humour magazine, Mad Magazine.
A trip to the Native American settlement of Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico at the age of five established a lifelong connection to the desert for Billy, who went on to attend Columbus College of Art and Design before graduating with a BFA from Kansas City Art Institute in 1969.
Following a move to New York, his first solo show at the age of 24 sold out – marking the start of a long and illustrious career. As one of the originators of the Western pop art movement, Billy incorporated photorealism techniques with a pop art sensibility both to celebrate and poke fun at Western imagery.
His early exploration of the relationship between art, celebrity and advertising saw Billy unite with Warholian iconoclasts in the 1960s and 1970s, during which time he mingled with celebrities such as the American music legend Lou Reed.
During a period in which the New York art scene rejected social and political commentary as too ‘literal’ and ‘dated’, Billy’s instinctive narrative arc marked him out from other creators. Artists Francis Bacon and John Clem Clarke became his mentors due to their incorporation of non-linear narrative content.
From the 1980s onwards, Billy began to expand his colour palette and add a mischievous, tongue-in-cheek slant to his work. Likening the Western genre to a metaphor, he continually sought to push the boundaries of the subject – leading him to be titled the founder of the ‘Western pop art’ movement.
His links to Andy Warhol were exemplified in 2018, when he shared a retrospective exhibition with the artist at the Briscoe Western Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas, from May to September 2018. Here, 26 pieces from his Myth of the West collection appeared alongside Warhol’s Cowboys and Indians. Now living in Santa Fe, New Mexico, his work can be found in major collections across the globe, including the Smithsonian Institution, Tucson Museum of Art and Saatchi & Saatchi. Additionally, Billy’s art has been the subject of several books, including the U.S. Literary Award-winning Schenck in the 21st Century: The Myth of the Hero and the Truth of America by Amy Abrams.
Billy is also a talented rodeo rider, having won a world championship for ranch sorting in 2009. He is the proprietor of the Double Standard Ranch in his hometown, illustrating that life truly does imitate art.
Bringing his art to the UK for the first time ever in November 2018, the real-life ranch sorting world champion promises to expose viewers to a reimagined Western narrative. Greek mythology clashes with irony, apocalyptic imagery and sexual tension for a collection that brazenly expands the limits of the genre. Billy’s work is characterised by its scorching colour palette, surreal juxtapositions and cinematic composition.
His fiery horizons and landscapes are formed from distinct geographical locations and his childhood memories of summers spent in the high deserts of Wyoming. From the 1980s onwards, Billy began to expand his colour palette and add a mischievous, tongue-in-cheek slant to his work. Likening the Western genre to a metaphor, he continually sought to push the boundaries of the subject – leading him to be titled the founder of the ‘Western pop art’ movement.
With a career spanning five decades, Billy Schenck’s work features in major collections around the world, including 52 museums and the private collections of the estates of Malcolm Forbes and Laurence Rockefeller. In 2010, the artist released Bill Schenck: Serigraphs 1971-1996 in conjunction with a retrospective of the same title.
One of his biggest career highlights to date is a shared retrospective with Andy Warhol at the Briscoe Western Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas, from May to September 2018. Here, 26 pieces from his Myth of the West collection appeared alongside Warhol’s Cowboys and Indians.
In 2018, the artist will take his first-ever trip outside the USA for a touring exhibition of the UK. It will be the first time audiences will have the opportunity to meet the original ‘grandaddy of contemporary Western art’.
Real-life ranch sorting world champion Billy Schenck is known as the 'Warhol of the West' for his exciting fusion of Navajo culture, modern-day cowgirls and tongue-in-cheek humour. His debut UK tour to launch The New West in November 2018 was followed by an appearance in GQ magazine.
His work also featured in the comedy-drama film Ideal Home, starring Paul Rudd and Steve Coogan. Billy, who is credited as the founder of the Western Pop Art movement, says: "I wanted to do with my paintings what Sergio Leone had done with film. No other genre in the last 200 years can compete."
As the quintessential American hero, the lone cowboy has legendary status in popular culture. Find out how artists including Billy Schenck, Richard Prince and Frederic Remington have depicted the iconic figure.
Inspired by the groundbreaking collection from Pop Art pioneer James Francis Gill, we're exploring the genre, which launched the careers of artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein.
Fusing Navajo culture, modern-day cowgirls and tongue-in-cheek humour, Billy Schenck – also known as the ‘Warhol of the West’ – takes viewers on an exhilarating trek through Western mythology.
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