Housed in Atelier: "Moving Paint: The Art of Earl Biss": American Impressionist Painter (1947-1998)

  • Moving Paint: The Art Of Earl Biss

    Inside the Atelier Curation

  • Atelier by relevant galleries

    Our newly established exhibition space in Denver, designed for rare & rotating collections. 

     
    Housed in Atelier—our most experimental gallery concept—this exhibition captures the dynamic tension of Biss’s practice. Just as Atelier celebrates art in real time, Biss painted in the moment: blacking out his workspace, surrounding himself with 60 blank canvases, and entering what friends described as “the zone,” sometimes painting nude, often painting in trance. In keeping with Atelier’s mission to showcase “art in motion,” this presentation explores not just the finished works, but the mythology, ritual, and endurance behind them. This is not merely an exhibition—it is a glimpse into the fire of creation.
     
  • Moving Paint: The Art of Earl Biss, American Impressionist Painter

    Moving Paint: The Art of Earl Biss

    American Impressionist Painter

    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. He was, according to one Southwest critic and collector, "The greatest colorist of the 20th century."

    Biss was a central figure in the "miracle generation" of students at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe in the 1960s. When Earl and his fellow students 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. "Earl was the catalyst," Red Star said, "like the agitator in a washing machine."

    " 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.”

     

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  • Atelier's Current Curation

  • Ink and Instinct: The Spontaneity of Earl Biss, The Drawings

    Ink and Instinct: The Spontaneity of Earl Biss

    The Drawings

    Long before Earl Biss became known as a leading visionary of contemporary Native American art, he was a young artist with pockets as unpredictable as his brilliance. In the 1970s and early ’80s, when inspiration struck, or when he needed a warm meal or a ride across town, Earl would reach for what was always close at hand: a felt-tip pen and a scrap of paper.

    These quick pen and ink drawings weren’t just studies or idle sketches. They were currency. In the dimly lit corners of bars, restaurants, and cab backseats from Santa Fe to Denver, Biss would create these wildly expressive works in a matter of minutes.

    Spirited figures, galloping horses, and surreal landscapes, each infused with his unmistakable energy, would come alive in black ink, often exchanged moments later for a steak dinner, a bottle of wine, or a ride across the city.

     He understood the power of his gift, and so did the people around him. Many of these sketches were done on napkins, cocktail menus, or the back of receipts; any surface would do. For Earl, the moment was what mattered: the immediacy of gesture, the rhythm of movement, and the electric pulse of intuition.

    Collectors today covet these pen and ink pieces not only for their raw artistry but for what they represent: the unfiltered brilliance of a restless spirit, living by instinct, drawing to survive, and transforming everyday encounters into moments of lasting beauty.

     

    Each mark, like Earl himself, refused to sit still.

     

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  • THE ART OF THE SERIGRAPH:, EARL BISS IN LAYERS

    THE ART OF THE SERIGRAPH:

    EARL BISS IN LAYERS

    Earl Biss didn’t just approve his serigraphs; he practically lived inside them. Each limited-edition print began with his hand-drawn color separations on Mylar, leading to an extraordinary process involving 60 to 80 individual silk screens. One screen. One color. One layer at a time, perfectly timed.

     

    The paint was hand-pulled across museum-grade paper using a squeegee, then left to cure for 24 to 48 hours before the next hue was applied to the surface. A single edition could take up to six months to complete.

     

    Biss, forever the purist, personally signed off on every shade, ensuring each serigraph echoed the soul of the original painting. No shortcuts. No compromises.

     

    The result is not just a print; it’s a masterwork of precision and passion, where every layer holds the artist’s fingerprint. Collectors prize them for precisely what they are: living proof that even in reproduction, Biss insisted on brilliance.

     

    View the Serigraph collection

  • Museum Collections The Smithsonian Institution: Washington, D.C. The Denver Art Museum: Denver, Colorado The Heard Museum: Phoenix, Arizona The Philbrook...

    Museum Collections

    • The Smithsonian Institution: Washington, D.C.
    • The Denver Art Museum: Denver, Colorado
    • The Heard Museum: Phoenix, Arizona
    • The Philbrook Museum: Tulsa, Oklahoma
    • The Museum of New Mexico: Santa Fe, New Mexico
    • The Museum of the Plains Indian: North Browning, Montana
    • The James Museum of Western Art: St. Petersburg, Florida

     

  • The Quality of Paint

    "When I was first starting, or when I realized that there was a chance I might be recognized in the art world, I fought rigorously to let people know that I was an artist first, not just an Indian artist. I feel this was because of my awareness of the fine arts, my European influences, and my knowledge that fine art, especially oil painting, has its roots in Europe.
     

    Success by being Indian is very dangerous, as it tends to suggest regionalism, or something that could be too easily typed as a fad, or something that is in style. And something that is in style goes out of style so easily, discarded by the public. I know my artwork is much more important than that. There are too many artists, in my opinion, who are riding on nationality, where they come from, whether it be a Black artist, a cowboy artist, an Indian artist, or whatever. There are isms. Indianism is, in a way, phony and very shallow in the world sense. If a person has something to say, it shouldn’t be just to the white man, it shouldn’t be just to the negro, it shouldn’t be of just political ilk.

     

    I believe that important artists should speak to humanity as a whole. Knowing this at an early age, I fought against being recognized as an Indian artist. However, in the early 70s, Navajo jewelry was very popular at the time. I happened to be a jeweler. Not many people realize this, but I made my entire living from turquoise and silver jewelry before my oil painting started selling. I took advantage of this. Yes, I did.

     

    But I love my artwork, which comes from such deep feelings; I wanted to keep it pure. So for years, I painted totally abstract. But I found in this Indianism a very handy vehicle to obtain focus for my oil paintings. I found that many people who collect oil paintings are very sophisticated, intellectual, and well-read in art history. And they would recognize the difference between a phony and a real painter.

     

    I became comfortable with this. And I think that as part of the maturing process, I realized I am an Indian. I am very proud of being an Indian. I am an oil painter. And I am very proud of being an oil painter. It was a natural process that made me come to realize that I am many things at once. There is nothing wrong with being an Indian artist who is also a very fine oil painter. I am very proud of what I am, and I am not trying to fight something that I have no power over. This has really come about, I believe, in age.

     

    I want to keep my statement pure, and in an effort to do that, I like my paintings to be appreciated for the quality of the paint, much more than the images that I portray, because that is what truly makes an oil painter. The quality of paint. The quality of paint. Yes. Yes."