A Curated Collection by Galerie Zuger

  • Earl Biss, 1947 - 1998 (American)

    Earl Biss

    1947 - 1998 (American)
     "The Greatest Colorist of the 20th Century"

    There are moments in history during which forces align or collide, after which the world is profoundly different. In the art world, those moments include Goya and Turner moving beyond romantic realism; Monet and Pissarro discovering Turner and Constable, which inspired them to create Impressionism; Picasso and Braque imagining Cubism; and Pollack, Rothko and the 'Irascibles' launching Abstract Expressionism. Earl Biss was a major catalyst for such a moment in art history. It was the moment that art produced by Native Americans evolved from folk art to fine art, and for the first time became a focus for major museums and mainstream collectors. 

     

    Earl Biss was a profound contributor to the explosion of Southwestern Art in the last half of the 20th century, and particularly to the rise of contemporary Native American Art. His compelling portraits of Plains Indian horsemen, his phenomenal grasp of the medium of oil painting, and above all the sheer exuberance of his palette and brushwork earned him a place in the history books of modern art.

     

     

  • Biss was a central figure in the "miracle generation" of students at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) during the Golden Era of Santa Fe in the 1960s. When Earl and his fellow students – which included Kevin Red Star, T.C. Cannon and Doug Hyde – arrived at IAIA, western art was focused on cowboys and landscapes, while Native art was stylized, linear and depictive. That perspective was too narrow for Biss, who studied painting with Fritz Scholder, sculpture with Allan Houser, jewelry and design with Charles Loloma, and architecture with Paolo Soleri. Inspired by these teachers, as well as fauvism, impressionism, expressionism, and other modernist movements, Biss pushed himself and his friends to create an entirely new genre that we know today as "Contemporary Southwestern Art".
  • 'The Monet of the 20th century' - The Aspen Times 'I believe my work was most influenced by the European...
    Photo curtesy of Andrea Schumacher Interiors

    "The Monet of the 20th century" - The Aspen Times

     

    "I believe my work was most influenced by the European masters-the violent translucent skies of Turner, the impressionistic brush work of Monet, the illusive suggestiveness of Whistler's landscapes. I also have a great admiration for the stark emotional statements of Munch and Kokoschka. I was much taken by the landscapes of the American painter Albert Pinkham Ryder and by the garish color schemes of the Fauve movement. I believe that my work projects these admirations with obvious awareness of the freedom of Pollock, Dekooning, and the action painters of the late fifties." - Earl Biss

  • Highlighted Original Oils

    • Earl Biss, Walking the Waters of the Sun, 1990
      Earl Biss, Walking the Waters of the Sun, 1990
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    • Earl Biss, Riders at the Headwaters of the Yellowstone 1995
      Earl Biss, Riders at the Headwaters of the Yellowstone 1995
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    • Earl Biss, Chief Joseph's Retreat 1987
      Earl Biss, Chief Joseph's Retreat 1987
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    • Earl Biss, Beartooth Range
      Earl Biss, Beartooth Range
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    • Earl Biss, Warriors in the Late Day Sun, 1980
      Earl Biss, Warriors in the Late Day Sun, 1980
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    • Earl Biss, Strolling Through a Fire in the Sky 1991
      Earl Biss, Strolling Through a Fire in the Sky 1991
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    • Earl Biss, Return of the Raven to the Skokomish
      Earl Biss, Return of the Raven to the Skokomish
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    • Earl Biss, Landscape in Green
      Earl Biss, Landscape in Green
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  • Earl Biss Featured in Architectual Digest 

  • Highlighted Serigraphs

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  • Museum Collections The James Museum Smithsonian Institute Denver Art Museum Whitney Museum of Western Art Scottsdale Center for the Arts...

    Museum Collections

    The James Museum

    Smithsonian Institute

    Denver Art Museum

    Whitney Museum of Western Art

    Scottsdale Center for the Arts

    Museum of New Mexio

    Institute of American Indian Art


     

  • Art of Native America: Earl Biss Documentary

    Now streaming on Apple TV, Roku, Amazon & other streaming services

  • VIEW THE ENTIRE EARL BISS COLLECTION