Earl Biss Mirror Pass 1977 Reproduction Print

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This artwork titled "Mirror Pass" 1977 is an original color screenprint by noted Native American artist Earl Biss, 1947-1998. It … Read more This artwork titled "Mirror Pass" 1977 is an original color screenprint by noted Native American artist Earl Biss, 1947-1998. It is hand signed, dated and numbered 37/100 in pencil by the artist. The artwork (image) size is 29 x 21 inches, framed size is 38.5 x 30 inches. Custom framed in a wooden silver and blue frame, with fabric matting. It is in excellent condition.

About the artist:

Born in Washington state, Earl Biss became a well-known Native American artist. He was raised by his grandmother on the Crow reservation in Montana and earned a scholarship to the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe where he studied jewelry design. He attended the San Francisco Art Institute and then traveled widely in Europe where he was heavily influenced by the impressionist style of Monet and other European artists.

His paintings have a dream-like, abstract quality with Indian figures merging with the landscape. He worked on numerous paintings, sometimes as many as twenty, simultaneously. On October 18, 1998, he died from a stroke while in his studio painting.


• 1965 - 1966 Studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Was a member of the inaugural class. The IAIA was founded in 1962.

• Studied under Fritz Scholder, Charles Loloma, Alan Houser and John Chamberlain.

• 1966 - 1972 Studied at the San Francisco Art Institute.

• At the outset of his career, Biss's studio was in Santa Fe, and his contemporaries included Kevin Red Star, Doug Hyde, T.C. Cannon, Bruce King, Chuck Goodwin, Pete Jones, Dan Namingha, Harry Fonseca, Bob Haozous, Gordon Van Wirt, Don Chunestudey, Cliff Fragua and Bill Prokopiof.

• Their works of art were bold and innovative, informed rather than limited by their intrinsic awareness of their heritage. They created the phenomenon that became known as Contemporary Southwest Art.

• The names of a dozen or more of these trailblazers have passed into legend now, but none shines more brightly than Earl Biss.

• One of Biss's first solo exhibits in a major contemporary gallery was with Elaine Horwitch in Scottsdale in 1975. Not only did his paintings sell on their own merits, but Biss had launched his reputation as a "personality". The collectors bought out the show on opening day!

• His paintings and his life reached back to a time that was wild and free. Less than a hundred years before his lifetime, his ancestors had roved the Great Plains, and it was from these legends that he drew not only his primary subject but his primal energy. He painted an unending cascade of warriors. He was like a prairie fire roaring through the grass of the High Plains. Earl Biss existed to paint. He left a brilliant trail of paintings that had a profound impact on American art.

The work of Wearl Biss is held in numerous collections and museums, including:

The Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ
The Philbrook Museum, Tulsa, OK
The Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe
The Smithsonian Institute Museu3500, Washington DC
The Denver Museum of Fine Art
The Museum of the Plains Indian, Browning MT See less