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• Andy Warhol (American, 1928-1987)
• 1976
• Synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen on canvas
• Charles Francis Hendrie Memorial Collection by exchange, 1993.107

In the 1960s, Andy Warhol's multiple images of soup cans, Brillo boxes, Marilyn Monroe, and Mao Zedong revolutionized the idea of art. In 1976, the year of the America’s bicentennial, Warhol asked Indigenous activist and leader Russell Means to sit for a portrait. Russell Means (1939–2012) was not only an Oglala Lakhˇóta political activist for the rights of Indigenous peoples, but also an actor, musician and writer. The American Indian Movement was initiated to address systemic issues of poverty, discrimination, and police brutality against Indigenous peoples. Russell Means was active in international Indigenous issues, collaborating with groups in Central and South America and with the United Nations for the recognition of their rights. He was a pop culture icon and a symbol of resistance to a dominant culture in the United States. Ironically, Andy Warhol did not know who Means was and was primarily drawn to his appearance and rather than his high standing in Indigenous politics.