Oscar Howe

Oscar Howe (Mazuha Hokshina or "Trader Boy") (Yanktonai Dakota, 1915–1983) was an American artist from South Dakota, who became well known for his casein paintings.^[1]

Early life and education

Oscar Howe (May 13, 1915 - October 7, 1983) was born in Joe Creek, South Dakota^[1] on the Crow Creek Sioux Reservation.^[2] Descended from Sioux chiefs, he belonged to the Yanktonai band of Dakota. He attended the Pierre Indian School (a boarding school) in South Dakota in 1933.^[1] His artistic talent was recognized and he attended Dorothy Dunn’s art program at the Studio of Santa Fe Indian School from 1933-1938.^[1]

After working for several years and serving in World War II, Howe went to college, where he earned his B.A. degree at Dakota Wesleyan University in 1952. Having worked as an artist for more than a decade, he also taught as Artist-in-Residence. He received his M.F.A. at the University of Oklahoma in 1954.

Art career

Howe's early paintings are similar to other work produced by the Santa Fe Indian School. Later he developed a distinctive style of his own. Howe began with traditional Sioux "straight line" painting, based on hide and later ledger paintings, "an artistic form which symbolizes truth or righteousness",^[2] and infused it with Cubism. Through his art, he wanted to portray the contemporary realities of his tribal culture.^[2]

During the 1930s and the Great Depression, he was employed by the Works Progress Administration in South Dakota. He painted a set of murals for the municipal auditorium in Mobridge, South Dakota and a mural within the dome of the old Carnegie Library, now the Carnegie Resource Center, in Mitchell, South Dakota. Howe worked as an art instructor at Pierre High School in 1939.^[1] From 1948-1971, he designed panels for the Corn Palace in Mitchell.

Howe became Professor of Art at the University of South Dakota, in Vermillion, South Dakota in 1957. He taught there until 1983.

Survey texts and articles on Native American modern art often credit Howe with influencing the development of contemporary art in the Indian community. In 1958 he was rejected from a show of Native American art at the Philbrook Museum because his work 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."

His protest led to the acceptance of abstraction within thet community.^[3]

Honors

• 1960, named Artist Laureate of South Dakota.^[1]
• Two exhibition spaces are dedicated to showing his work: the Oscar Howe Art Gallery at the Dakota Discovery Museum in Mitchell, and the Oscar Howe Gallery at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, South Dakota.
• From April 17, 2007 to February 17, 2008, an exhibit of Oscar Howe's work was on display at the South Dakota Art Museum in Brookings, South Dakota. Most of these works were done in casein paint. There were also works in graphite on paper and sculpture of stone and bronze on display.
• An elementary school in Sioux Falls, South Dakota is named after him.

Quote

"One criterion for my painting is to present the cultural life and activities of the Sioux Indians; dances, ceremonies, legends, lore, arts . . . It is my greatest hope that my paintings may serve to bring the best thing of Indian culture into the modern way of life." – Oscar Howe^[1]

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Libhart, Myles and Vincent Price. Contemporary Sioux Painting. University States Department of the Interior, 1970:48-51.
2. ^ ^{a b c} Giago, Tim, Executive Ed. The American Indian and the Media, Minneapolis: National Conference of Christians and Jews, 1991: 34
3. ^ White, Mark Andrew. “Oscar Howe and the Transformation of Native American Art,” American Indian Art Magazine 23, no. 1 (Winter 1997): 36-43.

Further reading

• Anthes, Bill. Native Moderns: American Indian Painting, 1940-1960. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006.
• Day, John. “Arthur Amiotte and Oscar Howe: Sympathy and Divergence.” Arthur Amiotte Retrospective Exhibition: Continuity and Diversity. Ed. John A. Day. Pine Ridge, SD: The Heritage Center, Inc., Red Cloud Indian School, 2001. 19-24.
• Day, John A. “Oscar Howe: A Master Revisited.” South Dakota Magazine. 12, no. 2 (July–August 1996): 18-27.
• Dockstader, Frederick J., ed. Oscar Howe: A Retrospective; Catalouge Raisonné. Tulsa: Thomas Gilcrease Museum Association, 1982.
• Dunn, Dorothy. “Oscar Howe: Sioux Artist.” El Palacio. 64, nos. 5-6 (May–June 1957): 167-173.
• Howe, Oscar. “Theories and Beliefs – Dakota.” South Dakota Review. 2, no. 2 (1969).
• Jacobson, Oscar B. North American Indian Costumes. 2 vols. Nice, France: C. Szwedzicki, 1952.
• Jacobson, Oscar B., and Jeanne d’Uncel. American Indian Painters. Nice, France: C. Szwedzicki, 1950.
• Milton, John R. Oscar Howe: The Story of an American Indian. Minneapolis: Dillon Press, 1972.
• Pennington, Robert. Oscar Howe: Artist of the Sioux. Sioux Falls: Dakota Territory Centennial Committee, 1961.
• Sharples, Riva J. “In the Presence of Greatness.” South Dakota Magazine. (November–December 2008): 34-41.
• Snodgrass King, Jeanne. “Oscar Howe: Power, Strength, and Individualism.” Four Winds. 3, no. 2 (Autumn 1982): 8-15.
• Welch, Eddie. “Bridging Cultures Abroad: Oscar Howe’s American Specialist Tour.” South Dakota History. 37, no. 3 (Fall 2007): 185-208.
• White, Mark Andrew. “Oscar Howe and the Transformation of Native American Art.” American Indian Art Magazine. 23, no. 1 (Winter 1997): 36-43.

External links

• OscarHowe.org
• Oscar Howe gallery, University of South Dakota

Persondata
Name	Howe, Oscar
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1915
Place of birth
Date of death	1983
Place of death