Andy Warhol

Estate of Andy Warhol
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., New York
Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York
Private Collection, New York
Christie's, New York, 16 November 1999, Lot 46
Private Collection, Paris 
Christie's, London, 22 June 2006, Lot 16
Skarstedt Gallery, New York 
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2011

New York, Skarstedt Gallery, Andy Warhol: Paintings from the 1970's, September - October 2011
London, Skarstedt Gallery, The American Indian Paintings and Drawings, October - November 2012

Sally King-Nero and Neil Printz, Eds., The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné: Paintings and Sculpture Volume 4: Late 1974-1976, New York 2014, cat. no. 3394, p. 512, illustrated in color

This work is in very good condition overall. There is evidence of light wear and handling along the edges including hairline craquelure along the pull margins and a ¼- inch vertical line of craquelure in the upper left corner. The colors are bright, fresh and clean. Under raking light there is a faint outward protrusion along the top edge. Under Ultraviolet light inspection, there is no evidence of restoration. Framed.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

In the summer of 1976, Andy Warhol approached Douglas Chrismas about making a portrait series, and asked the dealer to find a model who personified the contemporary American Indian. A majority of the Indian nations in California and Canada recommended Russell Means (1939–2012), an Oglala Lokata Indian from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, for the role. Means was widely known for his leadership during the 1973 American Indian Movement (AIM) occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota to protest against perceived corruption of the local government and their mistreatment of the local Indian population. The siege of Wounded Knee was an armed standoff between American Indian activists and federal law enforcement officials that lasted 71 days and garnered national media and political attention. Douglas Crismas and Ace Gallery contributed $5,000 to AIM in exchange for Means’s participation and while Warhol never explained the reasoning behind his choice of subject matter, Russell Means as a typified American Indian represented an irresistible theme to Warhol on both a cultural and stylistic level.

Consisting of twenty-six 50 by 42 inch paintings, twelve larger 84 by 70 inch paintings, and twenty-three drawings, all conceived between August 1976 and early 1977, Warhol’s The American Indian (Russell Means) series is emblematic of Warhol’s best work. The present example, with its vibrant blue background and monochromatic, red-faced and haired Means, has an even deeper, essential layer of meaning. With Means's unrealistic bright red face and hair, an undeniable association with the derogatory slang term 'Redskin' can be made in the portrait; therefore further testing and challenging our predilection as viewers for indulging in the stereotype of the archetypal native figure central to American myth-making.

The topic of the American Indian had the undeniable appeal to Warhol of being a favored—and at the time highly controversial—topic in Hollywood. In fact, the actor Marlon Brando was campaigning heavily to raise awareness for the American Indian cause; one month into the siege at Wounded Knee Brando declined to accept the 1973 Oscar for Best Actor for his role in The Godfather in protest to the degrading treatment of the American Indian in American film. This intersection of political activism, popular culture, and celebrity is exactly the kind of subject which appealed so strongly to Warhol, as seen by his Mao series. The American Indian series shares the same bold scale, linking them to Warhol’s impersonal and monumental depictions of Mao. These similarities highlight the iconic, instead of dramatic, character of Warhol’s depiction of Means. As in the Mao paintings, here Warhol objectified a political and societal leader with the same cultural status, cache and awe he treated his earlier, more glamorous portrait subjects. This powerful portrayal of Means is the result of Warhol’s interest in the nature of popular culture as it relates to the duality of fame. Means appears as the archetypal American Indian not in an ideal sense, but as the product of the American consciousness, a figment of the cultural imagination exemplified by Hollywood’s portrayals of the American West. In Warhol’s work, Means has been converted into a Hollywood Indian, the classic stereotype. The strength of this image is in the way that Warhol forces the viewer to question their reaction to the work, and their associations with the perceived theme. Warhol deliberately tricks the viewer into seeing the American Indian as a stock character playing a type. He has turned Means, the guerrilla activist, into his antithesis: a Pop Indian. However, by creating these associations, Warhol in turn highlights their absurdity. The stereotype of the American Indian is, even when it is meant to be ennobling, a reductive construct; he is still a savage, even if he is a noble one. As Rainer Michael Mason writes, with the American Indian Series Warhol “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” (Sally King-Nero and Neil Printz, Eds., The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné: Paintings and Sculpture Volume 4: Late 1974-1976, New York 2014, p. 506). Fittingly, Means regained fame decades after his encounter with Warhol for his role as Chingachgook in the Academy Award-winning movie, The Last of the Mohicans.

The present The American Indian (Russell Means) is a study in dynamic contrasts stylistically as well. The combination of printed silkscreen image transferred to canvas with the conventional acrylic and finger painting imparts a pervasively energetic texture to the work. The highly saturated tones of Means’s face juxtaposed with the tactile articulation of his ornamentation and costume accentuate the potency of his impenetrable commanding physical presence. The deep blue background, almost glowing, instantaneously conjures a vivid image of the American West: the prairie, plains, and desert landscape.