An iconic portrait of the
late American Indian Movement activist Russell Means went for $6.3 million at an auction last week.
The American Indian (Russell Means) was created by the renowned
Andy Warhol in 1976, three years after the
siege at Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota brought the struggles of Native peoples into the forefront. It presents Means, clad in a ribbon shirt, a choker and with his hair in braids, in vibrant and bold colors.
"With its dual significance—an emblem of a contemporary sociopolitical crisis and an American archetype with far-reaching cultural resonance—
The American Indian (Russell Means) makes manifest Warhol’s profound contribution to the history of art," the
Sotheby's auction catalog reads.
Sotheby's estimated the piece would fetch somewhere between $4 million and $6 million so it went for a higher price than expected. Kelly Crow of The Wall Street Journal
reported a bidding war for the portrait at the
May 16 auction, which took place in New York City.
A Sotheby's auction drew $341.9 million in sales on May 16, 2019. Photo: Sotheby's
The international auction house otherwise did not immediately disclose the buyer of the item. It was
sold on a night that saw $341.9 million in sales, including seven new world auction records.
“Tonight we saw a resounding response to a very fresh sale, with nearly 80% of the works on offer making their auction debut," Grégoire Billault, the head of Sotheby's Contemporary Art Department in New York,
said in a release
According to Sotheby's,
The American Indian is a series of portraits of Means, who died in 2012 at the age of 72. The series consists of 38 paintings of two sizes and 23 drawings. The one sold last week measures 84 by 70 inches, and is only of 12 in existence.
A smaller version, measuring 50 by 42 inches and featuring Means in a different color palette, was
sold at Sotheby's in 2016 for $2.4 million. There are 26 of these sizes in existence, according to the auction house.
One of the larger sizes is
on display at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., as part of exhibit titled
"The Struggle For Justice." The item, portraying Means in yet another vibrant color palette, is on loan from the
collection of the National Museum of the American Indian.
In addition to Means, the exhibition features a
poster of Leonard Crow Dog, a
Lakota spiritual leader who took part in Wounded Knee in 1973. The poster was created by Paul Davis.
Popular portraits of former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama are also featured in the sane exhibition.
Sotheby's Contemporary Art Evening Auction
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Posted by Sotheby's on Thursday, May 16, 2019
Bidding on Lot 20,
The American Indian (Russell Means), begins around 28:25 into the video and ends around 32:33 into the video. The final sale price of $6.3 million includes the "hammer price" plus the buyers' premium.
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