Object Details
- Artist
- Bob Coronato
- Sitter
- Russell Means, 10 Nov 1939 - 22 Oct 2012
- Exhibition Label
- Born Porcupine, South Dakota
- Born on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, Russell Means was Oglala Lakota Sioux. In 1968, he joined the American Indian Movement (AIM), a militant activist organization. When AIM occupied Wounded Knee, site of the infamous nineteenth-Century massacre of the Sioux, in 1973, Means was the organization’s spokesperson. The siege grew into a seventy-one day confrontation between armed AIM members and the federal authorities. Means left the group in 1988. Artist Bob Coronato wanted to honor Means, who agreed to sit for him as long as the portrait conveyed that “Indians are not the idea of old Hollywood westerns or to be thought of as ‘in the past’ but a people very much of today, and with a rich history.” The artist and Means decided to include the upside-down flag, a sign used by the Navy as a symbol of distress and that AIM often displayed during protests.
- Nacido en Porcupine, Dakota del Sur
- Nacido en la Reserva Pine Ridge de Dakota del Sur, Russell Means perteneció a la tribu Sioux Oglala Lakota. En 1968, se unió al Movimiento Indígena Estadounidense (AIM, por sus siglas en inglés), una organización activista militante. Cuando en 1973 la AIM ocupó Wounded Knee, lugar de la infame masacre de los sioux del siglo XIX, Means era el portavoz de la organización. El sitio escaló a una confrontación de setenta y un días entre miembros armados de la AIM y autoridades federales. Means abandonó el grupo en 1988. El artista Bob Coronato quería rendir homenaje a Means, quien accedió a posar para él siempre y cuando el retrato transmitiera que “los indígenas no se parecen a los de los westerns de Hollywood ni deben ser considerados gente ‘atrasada’, sino más bien gente muy actual y con una rica historia”. El artista y Means decidieron incluir la bandera al revés, un signo utilizado por la marina como símbolo de peligro y que la AIM solía usar en sus protestas.
- Provenance
- The artist; sold 2017 to NPG
- Credit Line
- National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
- 2009
- Object number
- NPG.2017.81
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Copyright
- © 2009 Bob Coronato
- Type
- Painting
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- Stretcher: 188 × 93 × 3.2 cm (74 × 36 5/8 × 1 1/4")
- Frame: 192.1 × 96.8 × 5.7 cm (75 5/8 × 38 1/8 × 2 1/4")
- Place
- United States\Wyoming\Crook\Hulett
- See more items in
- National Portrait Gallery Collection
- Exhibition
- 20th Century Americans: 2000 to Present
- On View
- NPG, South Gallery 341
- National Portrait Gallery
- Topic
- Costume\Jewelry
- Symbols & Motifs\Flag
- Personal Attribute\Hairstyle\Braided hair
- Russell Means: Arts and Culture\Visual Arts\Artist
- Russell Means: Male
- Russell Means: Arts and Culture\Literature\Writer
- Russell Means: Arts and Culture\Performing Arts\Actor
- Russell Means: Social Welfare and Reform\Reformer\Activist
- Portrait
- Record ID
- npg_NPG.2017.81
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm4275346a1-dfde-49b1-813e-e4c7a9edc1c6
