Oscar Howe
(1915-1983)
Oscar Howe was a Yanktonai Sioux Indian, born on the Crow Creek Reservation in South Dakota in 1915. Howe attended the Prierre Indian School until he reached 18-years of age. Then he went to the Santa Fe Indian School to finish his high-school career. While in high-school, Howe was already doing exceptional work following the studio style of art. He had exhibits state wide from New York City to San Francisco and abroad in London and in Paris.
Oscar Howe spent a few years teaching art, at the same school he had attended during his childhood, before he enlisted into the United States Armed Forces. During World War II he was stationed in Europe for four years. In Europe is were Howe experienced a new style of art that later became a major influence in his work.
After Oscar Howe returned to the United States, with his new bride, he taught art while working towards his undergraduate degree at the Dakota Wesleyan University.
Lord Howe Island snorkeling - Double headed wrasse...
Howe
Ghost Dance at Pine Ridge.Howe earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1954.
There, Howe began to develop his personal style which included cubism mixed with Sioux influences. In 1957, at age 43, Oscar Howe was appointed Assistant Professor of Fine Arts at the State University of South Dakota. During the same year he also held his first one-man retrospective in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Oscar Howe's style of painting, in the later years, was marked as New Indian Painting. Howe was and is considered a pioneer of this new form as it began its rise in the 1950's. Native American artists moved beyond the Traditional Indian Paintings and began to develop a style using modern characteristics such as Cubism and Abstract Expressionism. This is easy to see in Oscar Howe...