Pride of the Piegan
$1,800.00
Editorial View
The Gallery's Perspective
You can almost feel the wind through the grasses as a band of horses and their riders surge forward across an open plain. Liang’s scene balances energetic movement with quiet sky: the herd’s varied coats — chestnut, black, white, mottled — give the composition pulse, while the pale blue distance and a single circling bird lend scale and an air of watchful calm. The riders are suggested with confident, economical strokes; you notice posture and gesture more than fine detail, which keeps the moment immediate and story-like rather than literal. Sunlight warms the foreground grasses and the animals’ haunches, creating a pleasing contrast with the cooler horizon. There’s a storytelling openness here — an event in motion that invites the viewer to imagine what came before and what will follow — and that sense of narrative possibility is where the painting’s charm lives.
The Artwork
About Plunder of Many Horses
Plunder of Many Horses<br> MASTERWORK CANVAS EDITION
Once introduced, the horse quickly became central to Great Plains Indians’ life. They were a measure of wealth and, interestingly, an individual’s prestige was judged not so much by how many horses he could accumulate, but by the number of horses he could give away. Horses served as universal currency and horse stealing was part of the marking of time. (Crazy Horse, the Oglala Lakota, was born in the fall of the year in which the band to which he belonged, the Oglala, stole One Hundred Horses.” Crow Dog, another Lakota subchief, was born at Horse Stealing Creek in what was then referred to as Montana Territory.) Horse stealing was a rite of passage. A boy on his first war party was given a juvenile nickname, but after he had stolen his first horse or killed an enemy, he was given a distinguished name.
“This small horse raiding party of Lakota has just successfully captured a bunch of good horses from their neighboring enemy, the Crow,” says Z.S. Liang. When pressed for more, the artist demurs. “The viewer is meant to create their own story about what has happened,” says Liang, “Some of the best stories are those not told.”
Among the many awards Liang has received are the 2009 David P. Usher Patrons’ Choice Award at the Masters of the American West Fine Art Exhibition and Sale and the 2005 President’s Award for Excellence, Oil Painters of America. He set a new, personal auction record at the 2009 Coeur d’Alene Art Auction for The Painted Robe.
“This small horse raiding party of Lakota has just successfully captured a bunch of good horses from their neighboring enemy, the Crow,” says Z.S. Liang. When pressed for more, the artist demurs. “The viewer is meant to create their own story about what has happened,” says Liang, “Some of the best stories are those not told.”
Among the many awards Liang has received are the 2009 David P. Usher Patrons’ Choice Award at the Masters of the American West Fine Art Exhibition and Sale and the 2005 President’s Award for Excellence, Oil Painters of America. He set a new, personal auction record at the 2009 Coeur d’Alene Art Auction for The Painted Robe.
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Artist Signature
Signed by the artist
This piece is artist signed and includes a Certificate of Authenticity.
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Image copyright © 2026 by Z.S. Liang.
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Z.S. Liang, born in China in 1953 and raised in a family of artists, published his first painting at age 6 in a children's magazine. His art education spanned two continents, beginning at the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing and continuing to the Massachusetts College of Art and Boston University. His award-winning paintings hang in both corporate and private collections around the world and several of his murals are permanently on display in New York City. His works are in corporate and private collections throughout the United States and many other countries, including Sheraton Corporation, Marriott Corporation, Weseda University Tokyo and the West Point Museum. Among the many awards Liang has received are the Best of Show and People's Choice at the American Society of Portrait Artists, the Arthur Ross Award for Painting at the Classical America New York, and the Lila Acheson Wallace Award for Painting at the Society of American Illustrators. Liang's paintings have been featured in the Artist's Magazine and the International Artists.
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