Earl Biss

Earl Biss painted the Crow world as weather: horse herds and blanketed riders emerging from storms of layered color, history moving through mist. A member of the brilliant Institute of American Indian Arts generation alongside T.C. Cannon and Kevin Red Star, he burned fast, died at fifty, and left paintings whose market has climbed steeply in recent years.

Revere Auctions provides free auction estimates for Biss’ work: send photographs of the front, back, and signature and our specialists will respond promptly.

Who Was Earl Biss?

Biss was born in Renton, Washington in 1947 and raised partly by his grandmother on the Crow reservation in Montana, in the horse culture that would fill his canvases. At the new Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe in the mid-1960s he joined the cohort — Cannon, Red Star, Scholder teaching — that remade Native American painting.

The San Francisco Art Institute added abstract expressionist muscle to his training, and his mature style fused the two inheritances: Crow subject matter carried by pure painterly atmosphere, glazed and scumbled color that owes as much to Turner and Monet as to any Western tradition.

From bases in Santa Fe and Scottsdale he painted prolifically through the 1980s and 90s, living as vividly as he painted; he collapsed and died in 1998, at fifty, in Santa Fe. The market’s reassessment of his generation has lifted him steadily since.

What Did Biss Paint?

The signature Bisses are horse herds and mounted figures dissolving into weather — “riders in the mist” subjects — in oil, often on large canvases, built up in translucent layers he manipulated with brush, glaze, and flame-like flourish. Landscapes, buffalo, and figure subjects extend the range.

He also produced editioned prints, which circulate widely and trade far below the oils; the distinction is the first cataloguing question.

How Much Is My Earl Biss Painting Worth?

Several things determine what a work by Earl Biss brings at auction:

• Original versus print — his popular images were editioned — the oils carry the market, and confirming which you own comes first
• Subject — the atmospheric herd and rider subjects lead decisively
• Scale and depth — large canvases with fully developed layered color are the prizes
• Period — strong mature work from the 1980s-90s anchors demand
• Provenance — Santa Fe and Scottsdale gallery history is well documented and reassures bidders

The honest answer is that no two are alike, and the difference between an ordinary example and an exceptional one is a conversation with a specialist, not a chart. Send us photographs through our free auction estimate form — front, back, signature, and any labels — and we will tell you what you have.

The Market for Biss

Biss’ market has surged with the broad reassessment of the IAIA generation: strong oils bring five figures at auction in recent years, with major examples climbing well beyond, and the trajectory has been upward. Institutional attention to Native American modernism keeps arriving.

Prints and small works remain accessible, which makes accurate identification matter; our specialists confirm category and place value free of charge.

How to Sell a Work by Biss

The strongest results for an Earl Biss painting come at auction, where national and international collectors bid against each other. Revere Auctions offers free, no-obligation auction estimates: send photos and dimensions and our specialists respond with a current market valuation and a recommendation on how to sell. Consigned works are professionally photographed, cataloged, and marketed through our fine art auctions to a worldwide bidder base, and we regularly arrange shipping for consignors across the country. If you need a formal written valuation for insurance or estate purposes, our appraisal and valuation services team can help; you can also read more about how selling at auction works.

Related: American & Western paintings, our fine art department, appraisal services, free auction estimates.

Reviewed by the fine art specialists at Revere Auctions, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Earl Biss: Frequently Asked Questions

How much is an Earl Biss painting worth?

Strong oils bring five figures at auction and major examples more, in a market that has risen sharply with his IAIA generation. Prints trade far below oils. Revere Auctions provides free auction estimates.

What is Earl Biss known for?

Atmospheric paintings of horse herds and Crow riders moving through storms of layered color — Native subject matter fused with abstract expressionist and Impressionist technique.

Who were Earl Biss’ contemporaries?

The Institute of American Indian Arts cohort of the 1960s — T.C. Cannon, Kevin Red Star, and others, with Fritz Scholder among their teachers — the generation that transformed contemporary Native American art.

Where can I sell an Earl Biss painting?

At auction with a house that reaches collectors of contemporary Native American art. Revere Auctions offers free estimates and formal appraisals.

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