Pop! Goes the West
A Special Exhibition Coming to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West
May 24, 2025 – January 25, 2026
Pop Art meets the West
Explore the compelling intersections between popular culture and the American West through the Whitney Western Art Museum’s newest exhibition, POP! Goes the West, opening at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West on May 24, 2025. Surround yourself with the iconic work of Andy Warhol and other artists who combine the styles and attitudes of the Pop Art movement with western subject matter.
POP! features eye-catching artwork with bright colors and bold designs. Artists depict a West that is both familiar and unexpected, filled with Indians and cowgirls, wildlife and highways, horses and pickup trucks, cell phones and tourists, along with lariats, guns, geysers, and more. By poking at stereotypes and weaving personal stories into histories, Pop artists reveal more complex–and realistic depictions–of the Old and New West.
The exhibition highlights dynamic artworks from the past five decades while revealing the influences of historical art, pop culture, and media.
Selections of proto-Pop objects from the Buffalo Bill Museum’s collection demonstrate the longstanding relationship between consumer culture and western art. And hands-on activities invite visitors of all ages to think, play, and engage physically with the exhibition themes. POP! promises fresh perspectives, offers a wide range of interpretations of the West in art, and celebrates western art as a vibrant genre.
A sampling of artworks from the show
THANKS TO
Diane Collection — Frère Family • Reid Schell — Handle With Care
Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund • Anne & Charles Duncan Special Exhibition Gallery Endowment
