Once upon a time in the West: Venus Over Manhattan tells the tale of the cowboy in art

Image of a cowboy trying to calm a rearing horse
Venus over Manhattan has opened #Rawhide, an exhibition dedicated to deciphering the role of the all-American cowboy in art. Pictured here is Bob Mizer's 'Untitled (Larry Lamb, Catalog #UH1-FH), Los Angeles, c. 1963', 2015
(Image credit: TBC)

On the walls of New York's Venus Over Manhattan gallery the weathered face of Texas cowboy Clarence Hailey Long, Jr., the original Marlboro Man, stares moodily off into the distance from under the brim of his Stetson. With a cigarette hanging casually from the side of his mouth and a bandanna around his neck, the portrait taken by Leonard McCombe in 1949 is a picture of rugged American masculinity. Meanwhile, hanging to its left in contrast, the comical Pee-Wee Herman is sitting tongue out, mounted clumsily on horseback in Herb Ritts' 1987 'Pee-Wee Herman on Horse'.

The pieces are part of the gallery's current exhibition '#Rawhide' a show about the role of the cowboy in contemporary art, from the nineteenth century to present day, chronicling his rise from peasant, to hero, to homoerotic pin-up. 'The theme is a kind of low-hanging fruit. Everyone likes cowboys but for some reason no one's done a cowboy show,' says Adam Lindemann, the gallery's owner and principal, who worked with curators Dylan Brant and Vivian Brodie to bring the show to life. 'I think it's interesting to see how these different artists have addressed it. They really have very different things to say, all coming from completely different places.'

In the exhibition, which includes works by Lichtenstein, Warhol, Cady Noland, Ed Ruscha and Richard Prince to name just a few, the cowboy is explored stylistically as well as emotionally through pieces such as Robert Mapplethorpe's erotic 'Boot Fetish' portrait to Edward S. Curtis' nostalgic gold tone photographs of wild landscapes from 1904. By chronicling these works, the show holds up a mirror to American culture and reflecting the evolution of country's values and desires. 'It's nice to think about what each [artist] is saying about the American dream through the cowboy,' says Lindemann. 'And I think that ultimately what can be drawn from this is that the cowboy is just an empty vessel that can be filled with our own projections.'

Richard Avedon's 1981 portrait of a Texan cashier, Peggy Daniels

Richard Avedon's 1981 portrait of a Texan cashier, Peggy Daniels, taken as part of his famous 'In the American West' series, next to a self-portrait taken in 1980

(Image credit: TBC)

photo frames on a wall

The cowboy is explored both stylistically and emotionally in the exhibition, which spans from the 19th century to present day. Edward S. Curtis' nostalgic 1904 photographs of the wild American landscape are of particular note, pictured left

(Image credit: TBC)

Photographs of Johnny Depp, Pee-Wee Herman and cowboy Clarence Hailey Long, Jr., the original Marlboro Man

Photographs of Johnny Depp, Pee-Wee Herman and cowboy Clarence Hailey Long, Jr., the original Marlboro Man, adorn the walls (left) next to Peter Saul's 'Daisy Crockett', 1985-2015

(Image credit: TBC)

Cowboy, rearing horse

'Untitled (Cowboy) (Rearing Horse)' by Richard Prince, 1997-98 (left) and 'Cowboy with Holes, Eating' by Cady Noland, 1990

(Image credit: TBC)

Black and white prints by Mike Kelley

Black and white prints by Mike Kelley, from his 1989 'Reconstructed History' series (left) and Cindy Sherman's 'Untitled Film Still #43', 1949

(Image credit: TBC)

Andy Warhol's 'Dennis Hopper Portrait'

Andy Warhol's 'Dennis Hopper Portrait', 1970 (left) and Roy Lichtenstein's acid green and ultramarine 'Face and Feather' of 1979

(Image credit: TBC)

'The American Indian (Russell Means)' by Andy Warhol

From left to right: 'The American Indian (Russell Means)' by Andy Warhol, 1976; 'Untitled' by Will Boone, 2015; 'Dry Frontier' by Ed Ruscha, 1987

(Image credit: TBC)

Robert Mapplethrope's homoerotic 'Boot Fetish'

Pictured right are Robert Mapplethrope's homoerotic 'Boot Fetish' of 1979 and Nate Lowman's 'Alexis', 2005

(Image credit: TBC)

the cowboy artist

'Untitled (Cowboy)' by Richard Prince, 2012 (left) and a bronze of the cowboy and vaudeville performer Will Rogers by C.M. Russell, known as 'the cowboy artist' 

(Image credit: TBC)

'Our Flag' by Ed Ruscha, 1987

'Our Flag' by Ed Ruscha, 1987

(Image credit: TBC)

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