modern & contemporary art

The American Indian (Russell Means), Andy Warhol

In the 1960s, Andy Warhol’s multiple images of soup cans, Brillo boxes, Marilyn Monroe, and Mao Tse Tung revolutionized the idea of art.

The American Indian (Russell Means) is a rare exception in Warhol’s work, for it comes closer to a traditional portrait painting than most of the artist’s other work. Warhol asked the American Indian activist to sit for him after the two met at a gallery opening. Warhol photographed Means, screened the photograph onto several canvases, and overpainted each image using different colors.

The work at the Denver Art Museum is the largest of the known canvases and the only one with a palette limited to black, gray, silver, and white.

American Indian Art