"There was a time when people were only interested in the visual appearance of the overall picture and unable to reflect on the 'meaning' of the figurative elements. I got people to interpret my figures only through dealing with topical subjects, and then mainly complaints like, 'How the hell am I supposed to appreciate your technique if you keep painting these exciting scenes that are hard to ignore?'" – Peter Saul

In Abstract Expressionist Cowboy, Peter Saul reconfigures the celebrated symbol of exaggerated masculinity, using it as a vehicle to dismantle ingrained societal preconceptions. Unlike the many iterations of the cowboy in works by Richard Prince, Thomas Hart Benton, or Charles Marion Russell—where he often appears riding against picturesque sunsets or sharing cigarettes in a pastoral landscape—Saul’s cowboy is caught in a vortex of distortion. His manipulation of forms is both fluid and sculptural, a wildly imaginative fusion of Salvador Dalí’s melting, rubbery surrealism and Willem de Kooning’s savagely comic figural contortions. Abstract Expressionist Cowboy stands as a striking milestone in Saul’s oeuvre, remarkable for its technical refinement, delicate beauty, and and abstract complexity.