Lot112 N11733 Andy Warhol The American Indian (Russell Means)

Residing at the intersection of popular culture, political activism, and celebrity, Portrait of an American Indian (Russell Means) is an exemplar of Andy Warhol’s distillation of diverse ideas into an iconic, enduring image. The image in question—a monumental headshot of Lakota leader and activist Russell Means—stares unflinchingly out at the viewer, clad in the silkscreen ink and bold swathes of color that mark Warhol’s signature style. In a venture with West Coast dealer and Ace Gallery owner Doug Chrismas, Warhol produced a limited suite series entitled, The American Indian, of which many are now held in prominent institutional collects ions including The National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C.; Hamburger Kunsthalle; and The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, among others. The present example, executed in late 1976, is among the very best from the series, possessing exceptional claritys in both line and color. Alongside its stunning visual contrasts, the portrait stirs up the contrasting perceptions of its subject: at once proud individual and general archetype, Portrait of an American Indian (Russell Means) embodies the “ironies” and “powers” that define Warhol’s most rigorous examinations of contemporary culture—as seen through the lens of his art. (Tony Berlant cited in: Neil Printz and Sally Kind-Nero, eds., The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonne, Vol. 4: Paintings and Sculpture late 1974-76, New York 2014, p. 492)

Russell Means was born into the Lakota Oglala tribe in 1939, eventually rising up the ranks to assume leadership of the American Indian Movement (AIM). By the t.mes he first encountered Warhol in 1976, Means had already established a public presence of his own. In February of 1973, he led the American Indian Movement during the highly-publicized, seventy-one day siege of the town of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge reservation—the infamous site of an 1890 massacre of the Lakota by a U.S. Cavalry regiment—in protest against the mistreatment of Native Americans by the U.S. government. The siege garnered significant attention in Hollywood and beyond, with Means assuming the role of public activist, and increasingly, of celebrity himself. Meanwhile, Warhol had separately devised the idea of a series centering the American Indian as its subject. After consulting Indian nations in California and Canada in search of an individual that “best personified the contemporary Indian,” Warhol learned of Russell Means. (Neil Printz and Sally Kind-Nero, eds., The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonne, Vol. 4: Paintings and Sculpture late 1974-76, New York, 2014, p. 493) Starting with a cultural archetype and narrowing his focus to the individual, Andy Warhol invited Means to his New York studio in July 1976 to be photographed. The 82 Polaroid photographs Warhol took of Means that day became the foundation for The American Indian series.

In the series, Means is depicted wearing a calico print shirt, four beaded necklaces and a bone hairpipe choker, with his hair braided with brown leather wraps. His manner of dress was not particularly specific to his Lakota ancestry, but rather “contemporary and generically Indian in a sense, having come into fashion during the 1970s as an expression of American Indian pride.” (Neil Printz and Sally Kind-Nero, eds., The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonne, Vol. 4: Paintings and Sculpture late 1974-76, New York, 2014, p. 495) Means’ typified manner of dress, refracted through Warhol’s characteristic use of seriality, contrasts with Means’ role as an individual community activist. Taken together, these factors form a complex identity for the “contemporary Indian,” who is both undeniably individual and apparently generic; as Rainer Michael Mason remarks on Warhol’s execution of the series, "The master of indifference, with a sureness that is less somnambulistic than it appears, has once more adopted a theme that is simultaneously captivating and banal. The Indian is a conventional accessory of the American scene, for the same reason as its counterpart, the cowboy, or as Coca-Cola, the electric chair, the movie star. The title of the series, moreover, ‘The American Indian’ takes this anonymous and communal dimension into account. At the same t.mes , however, the Indian is the face of a real political problem, of a singular minority, and beyond that of all the American minorities." (Rainer Michael Mason cited in: Neil Printz and Sally Kind-Nero, eds., The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonne, Vol. 4: Paintings and Sculpture late 1974-76, New York, 2014, p. 493)

In each portrait, Warhol's signature style accentuates the complex and commanding presence of Means himself. Defined by vivid, variegated coloration and high-contrast edges, Warhol’s technique lends each portrait a psychic intensity befitting the personal authority of its subject. The present work, Portrait of an American Indian (Russell Means), is a particularly impressive example. Set against a swath of brilliant golden yellow, Means’ face and adornments vibrate in a rich tapestry of lilac, periwinkle, brick red, and cyan. Each bright color is anchored by Means’ silkscreened image, which lends an inky depth to his braided hair, strong bone structure, and piercing gaze. Warhol characteristically built up his paint surfaces in superimposed layers, then would score the layered wet paint with his fingers to create optical effects: this technique is evident in the background, where Warhol pushes yellow paint to evoke scattering sunlight. In contrast to Warhol’s prior portraits of celebrities and cultural figures, which utilize a flat, graphic backdrop, Means’ portrait retains a potent sense of atmosphere: the golden yellow, indigo, and tan colored backdrop undeniably echoes the sky and the desert of the American West.

Executed in the years following Russell Means’ siege of Wounded Knee, The American Indian series naturally assumes a political dimension. The lush setting of the American West becomes simultaneously associated with Hollywood myth-making, a force that often contributes to the stereotyping of the Indian and his character. This stereotype is often characterized by face paint, an image that seems commonplace, but in reality possesses a specific cultural meaning: as Means explains, face paint “was put on only those willing to die,” so those who wore such paint “were all the soldiers, the defenders inside Wounded Knee.” (Russell Means cited in: Neil Printz and Sally Kind-Nero, eds., The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 4: Paintings and Sculpture, Late 1974-76, New York, 2014, p. 498) In this context, Warhol’s use of colored paint to portray Means’ face throughout the series is especially notable. Yet the image as a whole still retains a sense of ambiguity: oscillating between dignified individual and flattened archetype, and playing upon the language of media culture while presenting a sincere artistic representation.

Encompassing the dual definitions of individual and archetype, Portrait of an American Indian (Russell Means) embodies Warhol’s most daring explorations of the seriality and portraiture which define the core of his oeuvre. The work, alongside the remainder of The American Indian series, is impressive in scale and intellectually rigorous in theme, revealing Warhol’s incisive and endless fascination with the cultural forces that define the American image.

Artist

Andy Warhol