Oscar Howe
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Oscar Howe (Mazuha Hokshina, engl. Trader Boy) (Yanktonai Dakota, May 13, 1915 - October 7, 1983) was an American artist who became well-known for his watercolor paintings. Descended from Sioux Chiefs, Howe was a graduate of Dorothy Dunn’s famous art program at the Santa Fe, New Mexico Indian School. He was a veteran of the Second World War, and held a masters degree in art from the University of Oklahoma. Howe was one of the first Native American modern artists. His early paintings are similar to other work produced at the Santa Fe Indian School, but he later developed a distinctive style of his own. He was Professor of Art at the University of South Dakota, in Vermillion, South Dakota from 1957 to 1983.
During the 1930s he was employed by the Works Progress Administration in South Dakota, which hired him to paint a set of murals for the municipal auditorium in Mobridge, South Dakota and a mural within the dome of the Carnegie Library in Mitchell, South Dakota. From 1948-1971 he designed panels for the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota.
In survey texts and articles on Native America modern art, one of Howe's actions is often cited as an institutional turning point. Specifically, in 1958 he was rejected from a show of Native American art because it did not meet the criteria of "traditional" Indian style. Howe wrote in protest, "Are we to be held back forever with one phase of Indian painting that is the most common way? Are we to be herded like a bunch of sheep, with no right for individualism, dictated to as the Indian has always been, put on reservations and treated like a child and only the White Man know what is best for him... but one could easily turn to become a social protest painter. I only hope the Art World will not be one more contributor to holding us in chains." This action led to the acceptance of abstraction within that community. (See the article by White for more information.)
Over the course of his career he was honored by being named Artist Laureate of South Dakota. Two exhibition spaces are dedicated to showing his work: the Oscar Howe Art Gallery at the Dakota Discovery Museumin Mitchell, and the Oscar Howe Gallery at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, South Dakota.
Currently, November 2006, an exhibit of Oscar Howe's work can be seen at the Washington Pavillion of Arts and Science in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Most of these works are done in casein paint. There are also works in graphite on paper and sculpture of stone and bronze.
An elementary school is named after Oscar Howe in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
For Further Reading
White, M. "Oscar Howe and the transformation of Native American art." American Indian art magazine . 1997, vol. 23, no1, pp. 36-43.
Anthes, B. Native Moderns: American Indian Painting, 1940-1960 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006)
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