{"id":2453035,"date":"2020-01-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-09T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=318649"},"modified":"2020-01-09T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-09T07:00:00","slug":"earl-biss-biography-a-finalist-in-american-book-fests-2019-best-book-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/earl-biss-biography-a-finalist-in-american-book-fests-2019-best-book-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"Earl Biss biography a finalist in American Book Fest\u2019s 2019 Best Book Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Author Lisa Gerstner\u2019s biography of the late, beloved Aspen-based artist Earl Biss took a fittingly winding and idiosyncratic road to publication. And, like Biss\u2019 work, her book is now earning mainstream acclaim.<\/p>\n

Gerstner\u2019s \u201cExperiences with Earl Biss: The Spirit Who Walks Among His People\u201d was recently named a finalist in the American Book Fest\u2019s 2019 Best Book Awards, earning recognition in both the Art and Biography categories. This nontraditional biography sought to capture the essence of the rebellious Crow Nation painter.<\/p>\n

The book was 25 years in the making, beginning with Biss tapping Gerstner as his authorized biographer.<\/p>\n

\u201cEarl was so unconventional, he didn\u2019t want it to be a conventional biography,\u201d Gerstner said last year. \u201cHe didn\u2019t even care if it was in chronological order, because he didn\u2019t live his life that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unconventional it is, with a lively portrait of the artist that is unconcerned with reciting biographical detail (a chapter on Biss\u2019 marriages states he was married at least eight and perhaps as many as 11 times).<\/p>\n

Biss made untold thousands of oil paintings and serigraphs in his 30-year career as a painter, which mirrored the boom of contemporary Native American art in the second half of the 20th century. Many of his works now hang in international museum collections.<\/p>\n

Gerstner argues that Biss, who died of a stroke at age 51 in 1998, broke new ground by merging indigenous American subjects with the advanced painting techniques of the old European masters. An extraordinary colorist, he had studied in the Netherlands as a young man \u2014 following work at the Institute of American Indian Arts and the San Francisco Art Institute \u2014 and used the old-world traditions of oil painting to craft a contemporary vision of Plains Indians and scenes from the Crow Nation\u2019s land in Montana, where Biss grew up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a nostalgic look, like \u2018Oh, here are some cool Indians from 150 years ago,\u2019\u201d Gerstner said. \u201cIt was a vibrant presence that is alive today.\u201d<\/p>\n

She narrates his life in vivid and short first-person vignettes about her days with Biss in his final years. Gerstner recounts watching him paint in his fast-paced and improvisatory style, reproduces conversations with Biss about his visual and spiritual aims as an artist.<\/p>\n

\u201cExperiences\u201d also chronicles his long professional relationship with gallerist and American Design Ltd. president Paul Zueger. Gerstner brings readers into gallery openings across Colorado and out for drinks with Biss at the Woody Creek Tavern. She joins him for a court hearing (Biss\u2019 attorney balked at the artist inviting his biographer along) and on one rollicking day in Aspen with Biss as he sought out an old girlfriend, his attorney and a machine gun while plotting to flee his mounting legal troubles to Venezuela.<\/p>\n

Aspen Grove Fine Art last year celebrated Gerstner\u2019s book with two days of events, an exhibition of his work and a screening of an excerpt from an in-progress documentary that Gerstner is making on Biss.<\/p>\n

Titled \u201cEarl Biss: The Spirit Who Walks Among His People,\u201d the film is built on previously unseen interviews, archival footage and film Gerstner shot with Biss in his final years. It is now in post-production, Gerstner said in December.<\/p>\n

Many Aspenites remember Biss as an outsized local character and wildman rather than as a master painter. But his unconventional lifestyle ought not overshadow his genius.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople misunderstood the depth of what this guy was about,\u201d Gerstner said. \u201cThe depth of Earl Biss \u2014 of him as a human being and the mastery of his art \u2014 was profound and it was an honor to be trusted with this story.\u201d<\/p>\n

atravers@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author Lisa Gerstner\u2019s biography of the late, beloved Aspen-based artist Earl Biss took a fittingly winding and idiosyncratic road to publication. And, like Biss\u2019 work, her book is now earning mainstream acclaim. Gerstner\u2019s \u201cExperiences with Earl Biss: The Spirit Who Walks Among His People\u201d was recently named a finalist in the American Book Fest\u2019s 2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2453035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 21:53:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2453035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453035\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2453035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2453035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2453035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}