Earl Biss (September 29, 1947 – October 18, 1998), also called Spotted Horse and The Spirit Who Walks Among His People, was a Native American painter born in

Renton, Washington Renton is a city in King County, Washington, United States, and an inner-ring suburb of Seattle. Situated southeast of downtown Seattle, Renton straddles the southeast shore of Lake Washington, at the mouth of the Cedar River. As of the 202 ...

. He was Apsáalooke and a citizen of the

Crow Tribe of Montana The Crow, whose autonym is Apsáalooke (), are Native Americans living primarily in southern Montana. Today, the Crow people have a federally recognized tribe, the Crow Tribe of Montana, with an Indian reservation, the Crow Indian Reservation ...

. A significant Native American fine artist, Biss is known for his colorful oil paintings of

Plains Indians Plains Indians or Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies are the Native American tribes and First Nations peoples who have historically lived on the Interior Plains (the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies) of North ...

and western landscapes. Biss exhibited his artwork widely and has works in the public collections of institutions including the

New Mexico Museum of Art The New Mexico Museum of Art is an art museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe governed by the state of New Mexico, United States. It is one of four state-run museums in Santa Fe that are part of the Museum of New Mexico. It is located one bloc ...

, the

Missoula Art Museum The Missoula Art Museum (MAM) is a contemporary art museum in Missoula, Montana. MAM was founded in 1975 as the Missoula Museum for the Arts and has been accredited by the American Alliance of Museums since 1987. History When the Missoula Publ ...

, and the

Gilcrease Museum Gilcrease Museum, also known as the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, is a museum northwest of downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma housing the world's largest, most comprehensive collection of art of the American West, as well as a gr ...

Early life

Biss was born to Earl Biss Sr. and Dorothy Shane and was a child of the Greasy Mouth Burnt Lip Clan. He was a descendent of Crow scout White Man Runs Him. As a young child, Biss split his time between living with his grandmother in Montana on the

Crow Indian Reservation The Crow Indian Reservation is the homeland of the Crow Tribe. Established 1868, the reservation is located in parts of Big Horn, Yellowstone, and Treasure counties in southern Montana in the United States. The Crow Tribe has an enrolled membe ...

and with his father on the

Yakama Indian Reservation The Yakama Indian Reservation (spelled Yakima until 1994) is a Native American reservation in Washington state of the federally recognized tribe known as the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation. The tribe is made up of Klikitat ...

in Washington. At age eight, Biss fell ill with

rheumatic fever Rheumatic fever (RF) is an inflammation#Disorders, inflammatory disease that can involve the heart, joints, skin, and brain. The disease typically develops two to four weeks after a Streptococcal pharyngitis, streptococcal throat infection. Si ...

. During his convalescence, he began painting and soon showed significant talent in the arts. Elders gave the young artist the Crow name Spotted Horse (Iichíile Xáxxish). Biss spent time at both Mount Si High School and Wapato High School. At age sixteen, he began at the

Institute of American Indian Arts The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) is a public tribal land-grant college in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States. The college focuses on Native American art. It operates the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), which is housed ...

(IAIA) along contemporaries T. C. Cannon (Kiowa/Caddo) and

Kevin Red Star Kevin Red Star (born 1943) is a Native Americans in the United States, Native American painter from Montana. He is a member of the Crow Tribe of Montana. Background Kevin Red Star was born on the Crow Indian Reservation in Lodge Grass, Montana. H ...

(Crow_. While there from 1963 to 1965, Biss studied under faculty including

Fritz Scholder Fritz William Scholder V (October 6, 1937 – February 10, 2005) was a Native American artist, who produced paintings, monotypes, lithographs, and sculptures. Scholder was an enrolled member of the La Jolla Band of Luiseño Indians, a federally r ...

(La Jolla Luiseño),

Allan Houser Allan Capron Houser or Haozous (June 30, 1914 – August 22, 1994) was a Chiricahua Apache sculptor, painter, and book illustrator born in Oklahoma.Charles Loloma Charles Sequevya Loloma (January 7, 1921 — June 9, 1991) was a Hopi Native American artist known for his jewelry. He also worked in pottery, painting and ceramics. A highly influential Native American jeweler during the 20th century, Loloma p ...

(Hopi), and

Paolo Soleri Paolo Soleri (21 June 1919 – 9 April 2013) was an American architect and urban planner. He established the educational Cosanti Foundation and Arcosanti. Soleri was a lecturer in the College of Architecture at Arizona State University and a Nati ...

. He was inspired by

Abstract expressionism Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depressi ...

and other

Modern art Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradit ...

movements to incorporate wider influences into Native art, in turn helping found the Contemporary Southwestern Art movement. Said Red Star, "Earl was the catalyst, like the agitator in a washing machine." After studying oil painting on scholarship at the

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a Private college, private art school, college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mis ...

, Biss traveled to

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

to explore art museums and to study printmaking with

Stanley William Hayter Stanley William Hayter (27 December 1901 – 4 May 1988) was an English painter and master printmaker associated in the 1930s with surrealism and from 1940 onward with abstract expressionism. Regarded as one of the most significant printmakers ...

. Biss also spent six months painting on

Corfu Corfu ( , ) or Kerkyra (, ) is a Greece, Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands; including its Greek islands, small satellite islands, it forms the margin of Greece's northwestern frontier. The island is part of the Corfu (regio ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. Biss said, "I believe my work was most influenced by the works of the European masters: the violent translucent skies of illiamTurner, the impressionistic brush work of

Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...

, illusive suggestiveness of Whistlerlandscapes." Other influences included

Edvard Munch Edvard Munch ( ; ; 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His 1893 work ''The Scream'' has become one of Western art's most acclaimed images. His childhood was overshadowed by illness, bereavement and the dread of inher ...

Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter. A major figure in the abstract expressionist movement, Pollock was widely noticed for his "Drip painting, drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household ...

and

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning ( , ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. Born in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, he moved to the United States in 1926, becoming a US citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married pa ...

Career

Biss had his first solo exhibition in 1972, which sold out and earned him enough money to travel and learn. He quickly became well known as a master oil painter in his own right, and his work was exhibited across the globe. Biss moved often, setting up studios in places like Santa Fe,

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, Red Lodge, and

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

. He was a prolific artist who created thousands of works in his lifetime. Biss often worked in days-long painting sessions in which he would create under the influence of alcohol and other substances. He prided himself on his technique, once saying, "Ninety-nine percent of the artists in the United States don't really know oil painting and if an artist doesn't paint in oils then he isn't a real artist." After years of artwork honoring his Apsáalooke heritage, Biss earned the name The Spirit Who Walks Among His People (Iláaxe Baahéeleen Díilish).

Personal life

Of Biss, his colleague Presley LaFountain said, "His passion was Indian people, horses, women and art." Biss had numerous relationships and marriages throughout his life. In 1998, Biss died of a stroke while painting in his studio in Sante Fe, New Mexico. He is interred at the Crow Agency Cemetery in

Crow Agency, Montana Crow Agency () is a census-designated place (CDP) in Big Horn County, Montana, United States and is near the actual location for the Little Bighorn National Monument and re-enactment produced by the Real Bird family known as Battle of the Lit ...

Legacy

In 2021, Biss was the subject of a documentary film ''Earl Biss: The Spirit Who Walks Among His People.''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Biss, Earl 1947 births 1998 deaths 20th-century American painters 20th-century indigenous painters of the Americas Painters from New Mexico Painters from Washington (state) Native American painters Crow people Abstract expressionist artists Institute of American Indian Arts alumni San Francisco Art Institute alumni