General Custer
from Cowboys and Indians

Medium: Screenprint in colors on Lenox Museum Board
Year: 1986
Sheet: 36×36 inches (91.4 x 91.4 cm)
Edition: 250
Artist’s Proofs: 50 AP
Printer’s Proofs: 15 PP
Hors Commerce: 15 HC
Other: 10 numbered in Roman numerals
Trial Proofs: 36 TP in unique color combination
(see Feldmann & Schellmann IIB.379)
Publisher: Gaultney, Klineman Art, Inc., New York
Printer: Rupert Jasen Smith, New-York
Literature: Feldmann & Schellmann II.379

Signed and numbered in pencil lower left
With the publisher’s blindstamp and the artist’s copyright inkstamp on the reverse

General Custer is part of Cowboys and Indians
(Click on picture below to access the Catalogue entry)

In 1986, Andy Warhol turned his keen eye toward the mythology of the American West with his Cowboys and Indians portfolio, a series of screenprints that pairs celebrated Native American leaders with cowboy icons, real and imagined. Among these is General Custer, a striking and provocative portrait of one of American history’s most polarizing military figures. Through his signature technique of silkscreen printing, Warhol reimagines Custer not as a nuanced historical figure, but as a symbol, part legend, part critique, floating in the glowing, flattened world of pop culture.

George Armstrong Custer was many things: a Civil War hero, a dashing cavalry commander, and later, a symbol of American ambition turned to tragedy. Most infamously, he led the 7th Cavalry into the disastrous Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, where he and his men were annihilated by a coalition of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors. Custer’s demise was quickly spun into patriotic lore,  a tale of heroic last stands, but modern historians tend to see him as a reckless tactician, driven more by vanity than strategic sense.

Warhol’s General Custer features a cropped bust of the general in profile, arms crossed, set against a stark white backdrop. The rigid posture, military uniform, and flowing golden curls are all rendered with Warhol’s iconic flatness and exaggerated color choices. Vivid reds and oranges punctuate the uniform, while a bright yellow outlines the silhouette, turning Custer into an almost comic-book-like hero. And yet, the intense colors and deliberate artifice give the print an unsettling undertone,  is this a tribute or a takedown? Warhol’s composition, devoid of landscape or historical reference points, isolates Custer from the broader story. This choice subtly critiques how history is often reduced to personality cults, simplified and stylized, scrubbed of complexity.

Warhol employed silkscreen printing to great effect here, a method he famously used to replicate media images with industrial precision. He began with a black-and-white photographic source, likely a promotional or archival portrait, and then layered bold, unnatural colors over the print. By recontextualizing historical figures through this commercial technique, once used for printing advertisements, Warhol comments on the commodification of fame and myth, whether in Hollywood or in American history books. In General Custer, this technique underlines the fact that Custer’s image has long been a product of national storytelling, glamorized, reproduced, and sold, often at the expense of the deeper historical truth.

As with many pieces in the Cowboys and Indians series, General Custer asks its viewers to reckon with the narratives they’ve absorbed. Warhol juxtaposes Custer with figures like Sitting Bull and Geronimo within the portfolio, intentionally highlighting the contradictions between myth and memory. Rather than offering a clean moral stance, Warhol presents the imagery and lets the tension speak for itself.

Auction Market Overview

Regular Editions

Bonhams Skinner: 26 September 2022
Estimated: USD 40,000 – 60,000
USD 75,975

ANDY WARHOL
GENERAL CUSTER, from Cowboys and Indians (F. & S. II.379), 1986
Screen-print in colors on Lenox Museum Board
Numbered and signed in pencil ‘2/250 Andy Warhol’

Sotheby’s New-York: 26 October 2019
Estimated: USD 30,000 – 50,000
USD 52,500

ANDY WARHOL
GENERAL CUSTER, from Cowboys and Indians (F. & S. II.379), 1986
Screen-print in colors on Lenox Museum Board
Signed in pencil and inscribed ‘HC 12/15’
An hors commerce impression aside from the numbered edition of 250 plus 50 artist’s proofs

Larsen Art Auction: 24 October 2020
Estimated: USD 30,000 – 45,000
USD 42,000 (Hammer)
USD 52,500

ANDY WARHOL (American, 1928-1987)
General Custer, from Cowboys and Indians (F.&S. II.379), 1986
Screenprint on Lenox Museum Board e
Edition: 75 of 250
Signed in pencil Andy Warhol, lower left

General Custer (AP 9/50)
Christie’s New-York: 18 April 2019
Estimated: USD 30,000 – 50,000
USD 43,750

General Custer (AP 22/50)
Christie’s New-York: 20 April 2018
Estimated: USD 30,000 – 50,000
USD 40,000

General Custer (234/250)
Sotheby’s London: 27 March 2018
Estimated: GBP 20,000 – 30,000
GBP 27,500 / USD 38,945

General Custer (202/250)
Sotheby’s New-York: 28 April 2017
Estimated: USD 25,000 – 35,000
USD 43,750

General Custer (216/250)
Christie’s New-York: 2 November 2016
Estimated: USD 30,000 – 50,000
USD 37,500

General Custer (73/250)
Christie’s New-York: 27 April 2016
Estimated: USD 30,000 – 50,000
USD 43,750

General Custer (17/250)
Sotheby’s New-York: 21 April 2016
Estimated: USD 30,000 – 40,000
USD 37,500

General Custer (AP 22/50)
Heritage Auctions: 14 November 2015
Estimated: USD 40,000 – 60,000
USD 40,000

General Custer (35/250)
Christie’s New-York: 24 April 2015
Estimated: USD 40,000 – 70,000
PASSED

Trial Proofs

General Custer (TP aside), 1986

Lone Star Art Auction: 1 November 2025
Estimated: USD 80,000 – 100,000
USD 60,000 (Hammer)
USD 72,000
UNIQUE PROOF ASIDE

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
General Custer, Unique (FS IIB.379), 1986
Screenprint in colors on Lenox Museum Board
Verso: stamped “Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board, Inc. Outside the Published Edition”
Inscribed in pencil, 116.083
This impression is a unique proof outside the numbered edition of 250 plus 50 artist proofs

General Custer (TP 34/36), 1986

Sotheby’s London: 24 September 2025
Estimated: GBP 40,000 – 60,000
GBP 50,800 / USD 68,345
TRIAL PROOF

ANDY WARHOL (1928 – 1987)
General Custer, from Cowboys and Indians (see F. & S. IIB.379), 1986
Screenprint in a unique color combination on Lenox Museum Board
Signed in pencil, inscribed TP 34/36
A unique trial proof aside from the numbered edition of 250 plus 50 artist’s proofs

General Custer (Proof aside), 1986

Sotheby’s New-York: 19 April 2024
Estimated: USD 50,000 – 70,000
USD 53,340
PROOF ASIDE

ANDY WARHOL (1928 – 1987)
General Custer, from Cowboys and Indians (see Feldman & Schellmann IIB.379), 1986
Screenprint in a unique color combination on Lenox Museum Board
A proof aside from the numbered edition of 250 plus 50 artist’s proofs

General Custer (TP 35/36), 1986

Sotheby’s New-York: 24 November 2015
Estimated: USD 40,000 – 60,000
TRIAL PROOF
PASSED

ANDY WARHOL (1928 – 1987)
General Custer, from Cowboys and Indians (see F. & S. IIB.379), 1986
Screenprint in a unique color combination on Lenox Museum Board
Signed in pencil, inscribed TP 35/36
A unique trial proof aside from the numbered edition of 250 plus 50 artist’s proofs

General Custer (TP 27/36), 1986

Sotheby’s New-York: 1 November 2013
Estimated: USD 25,000 – 35,000
USD 81,250
TRIAL PROOF

ANDY WARHOL
General Custer (F. & S. II.379), from Cowboys and Indians, 1986
Screenprint in colors on Lenox Museum Board
Signed in pencil and inscribed ‘TP 27/36’
A unique color trial proof, aside from the numbered edition of 250