Image Descriptions by Barbara Bouchard Green
Introduction
Oscar Howe (1915–1983) committed his artistic career to the preservation, relevance, and ongoing expression of his Dakota culture. He proved that art could be simultaneously modern and embedded in customary Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Sioux) culture and aesthetics—to him there was no contradiction.
Howe challenged the art establishment’s preconceptions and definitions of Native American painting. In doing so, he catalyzed a movement among Native artists to express their individuality rather than conforming to an established style. This legacy of innovation and advocacy continues to inspire generations of Native artists to take pride in their heritage and resist stereotypes.
Dakota Modern spans more than forty years of the Yanktonai Dakota artist’s career, tracing his development from early conventional work created while in high school in the 1930s through the emergence in the 1950s and ’60s of his own innovative and abstract approach to painting.
Organized by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and the Portland Art Museum. Curated by Kathleen Ash-Milby. The exhibition and companion catalogue are made possible through the generous support of The Henry Luce Foundation. Additional support provided by the Wyeth Foundation for American Art.
Organized by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and the Portland Art Museum. Curated by Kathleen Ash-Milby. Major support provided by The Henry Luce Foundation. Additional support provided by the Wyeth Foundation for American Art.
Support for the Portland Art Museum installation provided by the Institute for Museum and Library Services, grant MA-249741-OMS-21, The Standard, the Ed Cauduro Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation, and Greg and Cathy Tibbles.
Abstraction after Wakapana, 1973
Casein on paper
Oscar Howe Family Collection, University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.25.10
[Artwork Description: Vertical, abstract painting using curvilinear shapes combined with acute angles in shades of red, yellow, orange, blue, khaki and black. Ovoid shapes in varying sizes overlap and lie adjacent to each other creating an effect not unlike a bubbled surface. Interspersed among the rounded shapes are slimmer shapes with acute points or spikes that tend to splay outward from the center of the painting. The top edge, along with most of the bottom edge of the work is primarily made up of mustard and khaki-colored shapes that act as a background for the other colors. A swath of deep red and orange shapes dominates the center area, superimposed with cadet blue and more mustard. A few black shapes, some ovoid, some acutely spiky, accent the work near the center. Blue speckles adorn several of the black shapes with only a single orange shape bearing blue speckles. The artist’s signature appears at bottom right.]
He Came from Fire, 1965
Casein on paper
University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.26.15
[Artwork Description: Square abstract painting consisting of swirling color around a partial figure at center against a gray blue background. Oranges, reds, browns, and peach roil around a central figure shown seated in profile forming a large orb that just about fills the painting. The figure’s head, shoulder and bottom of their bare foot are defined but the rest of the body is encompassed by the swirling colors that swish in a circular manner around him. A swath of black hair encircles the profile of the figure’s face that includes a mask-like appendage near the eyes and a flame-like tongue. The smoke-gray corners of the work contrast with the warm colors of the circular mass. The artist’s signature appears at lower right.]
Victory Dancer, 1954
Casein on paper
Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Museum purchase, 1954.6, L2022.27.1
[Artwork Description: Vertical abstract painting depicting a figure in motion. Their head is thrown back, so the face is obscured and the neck and chin are visible. Their right arm is raised and holds a staff that appears to have yellow ribbons attached at each end that drape and swirl around the figure. The figure’s left arm is bent with their hand at their waist. The figure’s knees are visibly bent with the tips of their blue and red striped moccasins appearing just below them. This makes it appear that the figure is jumping in midair. The body of the figure is less defined and consists of geometric shapes in bright colors like yellow, red, blue along with shades rust and olive. Irregular angular shapes serve as bases for upright black tipped white feathers. They stand in groups of two and three near the figures shoulder, hip, and both knees. Additional thin lines in red and yellow extend at angles around the figure lending more sense of movement against the deep blue background. The artist’s signature appears at lower right.]
Meditation, 1969
Casein on paper
Oscar Howe Family Collection, University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.25.8
[Artwork Description: Vertical abstract painting in shades of grays composed of sharp, angular shapes. A tapered conical form at center is divided in half vertically with a pale gray side and an almost white side. It sits above six vertical stripes that vary in width and shade of gray. They seem to bend and follow the contours of the background shards they overlap. Sharp, pointed elongated bolts in pale grays overlay the stripes. A wide flattened V is crossed with two diagonal bolts on either side of the conical motif. Large shards in pale grays, deep gray and black combine to create still larger triangular shapes that lend the work a dynamic feel. The artist’s signature appears at lower right.]
Breaking a Wild Horse, 1967
Casein on paper
University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.26.10
[Artwork Description: Vertical abstract painting of a horse and rider jolting through the space surrounded by swirls of khaki, gold, brown and gray. The horse is positioned at lower center, slightly foreshortened. Above, a rider is seemingly thrown off the animal’s back and is almost horizontal above the horse. The rider’s long black hair and the gray horse’s black mane and tail are rendered as heavy black line work that creates a sense of frantic motion. The rider’s gray breech cloth billows behind him. Swirling colors surround the pair encircling them with lighter gold tones near the two figures and darkening to brown at the work’s corners. Wispy tendrils of peach and gray roil like smoke around and across the figures. The artist’s signature and year appear at lower right.]
“This is our art . . . and here is where we are making our last stand. . . . The least we can do is to fight this last battle, that Indian Culture may live forever.”
—Oscar Howe, 1959
Sioux Women Grooming, 1967
Casein on paper
Oscar Howe Family Collection, University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.25.1
[Artwork Description: Horizontal abstract painting of three seated women in the act of grooming their hair. The three figures take up most of the space in the painting and are arranged in a semi-circle. One woman kneels in the center while two women flank her, one on each side. The center figure sits on her knees while turning her head to the right, hands raised to her black hair. The other two women are viewed from the sides and have brushed their long black hair forward, covering their faces. All three wear long fringed garments in shades of golden brown. Their hair and the fringe are rendered as stiff lines that bend into sharp angles convey a sense of movement despite their rigidity. The folds and contours of the garments as well as the facial features of the central figure are represented as flat planes of shade and color. The figures are surrounded by more faceted angular shapes in hues of pinks and reds while the uppermost area of the painting becomes blue that deepens to an almost black at the corners. The artist’s signature appears at bottom right.]
Buffalo Dance, 1955
Casein on paper
Oscar Howe Family Collection, L2022.25.14
[Artwork Description: A vertical abstracted painting of a dancer wearing a buffalo headdress and brown skins as viewed from above against a bright pumpkin orange ground. The figure is foreshortened, and the top of the headdress is at center near the top third of the work. It’s depicted as a black oval with dark horns. Long black spikes of hair radiate out from the headdress. Irregular shapes in browns compose the dancer’s robe, part of which splay out from the body as the dancer moves. The figure’s hands appear claw like with their right hand shown dropping a handful of thin pipes with tiny pouches on the ends at left. The dancer’s legs are clad in gray leggings with black stripes, a burgundy breech cloth and moccasins. Spindly branches rise from the dancers back and all parts of the figure and his garment seem to be in motion at once. The artist’s signature appears at lower right.]
War Dancer, 1968
Casein on paper
University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.26.5
[Artwork Description: Vertical abstract painting of a disarticulated figure represented by shards of color that float against the gray background. Triangles, trapezoids and jagged lines resembling lightning bolts in reds, pinks, gray-blues, golden brown, dark gray, rust and black appear to be scattered haphazardly over the gray ground. A larger irregular rectangular brown shape at top center may be the dancer’s head. It’s surrounded by blue and black sharp edges that jut off at the bottom in what may represent hair. Two red parallel line in the brown section may represent the figure’s mouth. The painting is highly stylized and has a sense of frenetic movement more than a representational quality. The artist’s signature and year appear at bottom right.]
Emerging Artist
Oscar Howe was part of the first generation of Native artists who launched their careers through educational initiatives in government-run schools. In 1934, Howe enrolled at the Santa Fe Indian School in Santa Fe, New Mexico, as one of the earliest students in a studio arts program designed by art teacher Dorothy Dunn. Many Native artists trained in this program under Dunn, or her successor Gerónima Cruz Montoya (or P’otsúnú, Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, 1915–2015), and their influential careers shaped the field of Native American art. These artists included Pablita Velarde (Santa Clara Pueblo, 1918–2006), Gerald Nailor Sr. (1917–1952), and Allan Houser (Chiricahua Apache, 1914–1994), who became well known for his innovative work in sculpture.
After serving in World War II, Howe returned to South Dakota to pursue his career as a professional artist. Though there had been previous non-credit programs designed to train or support Native American artists, Howe was one of very few who pursued art degrees in mainstream universities. He earned a bachelor’s degree in art from Dakota Wesleyan University in 1952 and a master of fine arts at the University of Oklahoma in 1953.
Sioux Grass Dancer, ca. 1934–38
Gouache on bristol board
Museum of the South Dakota State Historical Society, Pierre, SD, 1990.001.005, L2022.33.3
This early figure demonstrates Howe’s interest and extraordinary skill in depicting fine detail, especially in the featherwork. The hint of a landscape, indicated by a horizontal line, grounds the dancer balancing on one foot.
[Artwork Description: Vertical painting of a dancing figure in blue regalia. The figure is depicted from the side facing left. Their right arm is raised above their head, and they hold a trio of black tipped white feathers. The figure wears a fitted long sleeve blue garment on top that is accented with a series of red stripes at the forearm, bicep, and mid-section. The figure balances on one foot with the other leg slightly stretched out before them. The legs are clad in long blue leg coverings with a dark blue breech cloth. Similar red striping as the top garment is found on the leg covering at the thighs and shins. The breech cloth is detailed with light blue and red stitching and three black tipped feathers along its lower edge. A breastplate in gray, red, yellow, brown and black suggests it is possibly comprised of fur, feathers, and beading. The figure wears a white, roach style, crenelated headdress with three feather tufts that rise from thin stalks attached to the headdress. A circular shape in gray with a blue center and white puffs radiating outward cover the side of the figure’s head. Yellow and black bands are at the waist and wrist. Moccasins with long black fringe and cowrie shell around the ankle are depicted in blue and white beading. Long dark strings or straps hold round bells and are attached to the ankles from the waistband. A circular feathered bustle is attached to the figure’s lower back and has black tipped white feather arranged in a circular pattern with faint red fringe and blue and red streamers decorated with more feathers and bells. The figure is set against a light tan background with a faint line acting as the ground.]
Untitled (Sioux Dancers), ca. 1934–38
Tempera on paper
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, The University of Oklahoma; The James T. Bialac Native American Art Collection, 2010; cat. 2012.019.072, L2022.21.1
[Artwork Description: Horizontal painting of similarly posed but uniquely dressed figures arranged in a row. The figures are pictured against a light cream background and are positioned facing left in a three-quarter view. Each has their right arm raised to shoulder height, and right left slightly raised as if in motion. Each figure’s left hand is by their side. All the figures wear long sleeve garments on top, long trouser-like leg coverings, and breech cloths. They each wear a headdress and have sprigs of greens that appear attached to the waist along with long white and black striped train perhaps comprised of feathers. Individual 1: Green garments, blue breech cloth with red stripe, cream elbow length gloves, a red and brown roach style headdress, bands below the knees, blue, red and white moccasins with yellow around the ankle. They also bear a red painted stripe across the bridge of the nose. Individual 2. Lilac garments, brown breech cloth, black and white shoulder covering, with a sunrise design on the torso, yellow-brown roach with two black tipped white feathers, fringed bands below the knees, red fringe running from waist to knee band, gray and red moccasins. Individual 3: Pink garments light blue breech cloth, white armband with light brown hanging pelts, full halo style headdress of black tipped white feathers, green and red cross shape on mid torso, fringed bands below the knee and light blue and white moccasins. Individual 4: Light blue garments, pale green breech cloth, maroon and white diamond pattern on torso edged in pink, bells on strap running from waist to knee bands, white and brown moccasins. Individual 5: Purple garments, pink breech cloth, brown, whit and maroon breastplate, full halo headdress of black tipped white feathers that continue to waist level, brown and pick moccasins. Individual 6: Yellow garments, pink breech cloth, pink and white torso covering, roach headdress with one black tipped brown feather and two black tipped white feathers, white bands below the knee, white and blue moccasins. The artist’s signature appears at far right under the last figure.]
Sioux Ceremonial, 1937
Gouache on paper
53939/13; Dorothy Dunn Collection, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Laboratory of Anthropology, Santa Fe, New Mexico, L2022.23.1
[Artwork Description: Almost square painting of a group of figures riding in a circle on horseback while a group of six others cluster within the circle. Sixteen riders and horses travel clockwise in a somewhat flattened circle as if viewed from above. Each rider wears a breech cloth and most carry either a ceremonial dance stick or are using a wind instrument. Several wear full halo feathered headdresses. Horses vary in color from browns to grays and some wear blankets on their backs. The figures at center stand around a drum, mouths open in song, with at least three actively drumming. They wear long blankets around their waists or draped on one shoulder.]
Santa Fe
The Santa Fe Indian School’s studio art program—or the Studio, as it came to be known—emphasized the use of conventions found in historic Pueblo painting and Plains ledger drawing. The approach was characterized by the depiction of traditional cultural practices, use of flat colors, and absence of background or three-dimensional modeling.
Symbolic, stylized motifs in the margins and background of Howe’s early paintings evidence the influence of Pueblo pottery design. After graduating with a high school degree in 1938, he continued to use many principles of the Studio for more than a decade but began to push its limits: his paintings burst with energy and dynamic action, his figures turned and twisted, and he fully exploited his mastery of anatomy in his rendering of musculature.
Blue Antelope, ca. 1934–38
Gouache on bristol board
Museum of the South Dakota State Historical Society, Pierre, SD, 1990.001.002, L2022.33.2
The minimal reference to landscape in this tender depiction of an antelope is depicted by a series of gradient blue lines beneath the animal’s delicate legs, a nod to his use of fine lines and color in later abstract works.
[Artwork Description: Horizontal composition on tan ground of a small antelope positioned at bottom center. The antelope faces right in profile and is represented in a stylized manner with delicate legs and simplified markings in white and blue gray. Antlers are small and feature just two points on one prong. The animal stands on uneven ground that dips beneath it. Stripes in shades of blue suggest water at its feet. Above the antelope at center top is a deep blue arch formed by the stacking of right-angled triangles at right and left. These connect to form a rounded arch. The arch’s line-like base continues at left and right and is accented by a series of white lines beneath each extension. The animal is tiny compared to the expanse of the work. The artist’s signature appears at lower right.]
Hunter’s Dream, ca. 1934–38
Watercolor on paper
Private Collection, L2022.28.1
[Artwork Description: Horizontal, stylized painting of three antelope, two shown in profile and one in a foreshortened frontal view standing on geometric elements resembling arched platforms. The animals are a golden brown with light gray marking in their chests, bellies, and rumps. The antelope at top enter stands on stacked, black arched elements and looks left. A decorative arch unites the antelopes at right and left who also stand on geometric platform shapes. At left, an animal lays with its feet tucked under it facing right. At right, another stands facing left. Abstract emblems at the upper left and right corners show blue gray horizontal lines of varying widths intersecting with black line, red circles and dot motifs. Along the bottom center a bow and arrow in brown and black are joined by moccasins and a feather at left and a quiver of arrows at left. The stylized nature of the painting has a flat and decorative quality. The artist has signed his name in the lower right corner.]
Sioux Water Boy, ca. 1939
Gouache on paper
University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.26.8
This painting captures Howe’s emerging fascination with unconventional perspectives and anatomy, the back and neck in particular. He depicts a seated water carrier from behind, the contours of his arms carefully outlined. The small figure in the background and symbolic representation of a bird give a sense of distance and perspective that counters the Studio’s approach.
[Artwork Description: Vertical painting of a seated male figure as viewed from the back. The young male holds a long, forked stick at a 45-degree angle. The figure, wearing only a dark blue breech cloth, sits with one knee folded under him at right and his other knee partially hidden by his body. Arm muscles, spine and shoulder blades are depicted in lines. The figure’s skin color is a terracotta and his hair is black, parted down the back and wrapped in two plaits. The stick he holds appears almost as long as his body and holds a tan cup shape in the fork. White feathers or tufts of fur dangle from the stick’s top end and more of the same winds around the bottom of the stick. The upper point of the stick lines up with an image of a standing figure at upper left. The small figure stands on top of a hill that is rendered as just a mounded line. They have the same skin color as the larger figure and wear a tan breech cloth while holding a similar stick. At top right, a geometric stylized bird in red and blue flies leaving dotted and squiggled lines in its wake. The artist’s signature appears at lower right.]
Young Cow Game, 1946
Gouache on paper
Museum of the South Dakota State Historical Society, Pierre, SD, K.879.003, L2022.33.4
[Artwork Description: A horizontal painting depicting five figures engaged in playing a game in a snowy winter landscape. The five figures are lined up across the painting, all but the figure at the far right with their backs to the viewer. They stand outdoors on what suggests a long, cleared patch of ice or packed snow. The long patch and heaped snow on the sides narrow in the distance indicating just how long the playing field is. Bare trees and wispy reeds flank the playing field. The first figure at far left kneels on one knee wrapped in a pale red blanket wearing light leg covering and moccasins. Like the other four individuals they have black hair parted in back and gathered into wrapped plaits A knife and sheath lies at his feet in the heaped snow. The second figure from left stands, bent slightly forward, a pointed knife or dart-like object in their right hand. They wear a light-colored tunic, red breech cloth and dark blue leg covering with white fur or feathers trimming the leg and moccasins. The center figure wears just a red breech cloth, light leg coverings with fringe and moccasins. The musculature of the figure’s physique is shown with lines on the arms, shoulders and back. They also hold a dart like object, arms away from the body as if in the act of tossing the dart. A quiver of arrows and a bow lay at his feet in the snow. The next figure stands with his arms outstretched in the act of tossing his playing piece which is in midair over the playing field. This figure wears dark blue leg coverings with white trim and a red breech cloth. The final figure at far right is facing the viewer but looking left. They stand wrapped in a pale red blanket that drapes past the knees. They wear light gray leg covering and white moccasins and have the addition of a single black tipped white feather tucked in the back of the hair. A club decorated with a black tipped feather lies in the heaped snow at his feet. Across the very top edge of the painting is a zig zag line flanked by a stylized buffalo heads at either end. The heads are inverted blue triangles with red, blue and cream designs.]
Oklahoma
At the University of Oklahoma, Howe’s advisor, Professor John O’Neil (1915–2004), encouraged him to experiment. His education introduced him to various movements and theories of mid-century modernism, as well as surrealism, abstract expressionism, and the work of Mexican muralists. As a result of these influences, Howe’s work shifted dramatically and his compositions became more abstract. His work was also increasingly philosophical as he began to incorporate Dakota visual symbolism in color and form.
North American Indian Costumes
(1564–1950)
Volume I and II, print folios
Edited by O. B. Jacobson, illustrated by Oscar Howe
Nice, France, Editions d’Art C. Szwedzicki, 1952
L2022.26.1, L2022.26.2
Before attending graduate school, Howe was hired to produce paintings for the print portfolio North American Indian Costumes. His adventurous interpretations within the boundaries of the Studio were set aside to fit the art direction of Oscar Brousse Jacobson, an art professor and director of the Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma. Jacobson objected to the education of Native artists in Western art history and methods, believing that it “would have altered undesirably their clear and innocent native vision.” North American Indian Costumes was the final portfolio in a series that Jacobson edited and authored to preserve his concept of “traditional Indian painting.” Meanwhile, artists like Howe were eager to experiment and develop their own approaches.
Sundance Virgin, 1962
Casein on paper
University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.26.20
[Artwork Description: Vertical painting depicting a female figure captured in mid-jump with knees bent and body hunched in front of a large, stylized tree. The tree and its kidney-shaped clumps of foliage envelop almost the entire background. It has simple curved, c-shaped brown branches placed on top of the flat rounded shapes in shades of dark green. The female figure, pictured in profile facing left, wears a long off-white garment with long fringe at the hem and bodice. The fringe arcs outward as the figure makes her descent. Her long black hair flies freely to the left. The branches, fringe and hair appear to echo one another in their curves and contours. The artist’s signature appears at lower right.]
Young Indian, 1950, 1948
Source painting for North American Indian Costumes (1564–1959), 1952
Watercolor and ink on paper
National Museum of the American Indian 24/9048, L2022.24.2
[Artwork Description: A vertical illustration of a figure standing with their hands in their blue jean pockets wearing a red waist length jacket, a wide brimmed white hat and cowboy boots. The red jacket is unzipped revealing a pale orange, button-up collared shirt. They wear a brown belt with a silver belt buckle and brown cowboy boots. Their off white wide brimmed hat sits at an angle. They have short black hair and a brown face and hands. The illustration is flat with no shading. It is bordered by double thin lines that create a frame but no other detail on the cream ground. “Young Indian 1950” appears at lower right.]
A Hopi Bride, 1880, 1948
Source painting for North American Indian Costumes (1564–1959), 1952
Watercolor and ink on paper
National Museum of the American Indian 24/9029, L2022.24.1
[Artwork Description: A vertical illustration of a female figure wearing a mid-calf length blue dress with a white robe over her shoulders, holding a katsina doll. Her black hair is arranged in two squash blossom whorls by each ear. They resemble flat, oversized side buns when viewed from the front. The blanket bears teal and black geometric patterning near the neck and along the bottom border. Large blue tassels hang from the corners. A bit of red sash peeks out from under the blanket. Her left arm is hidden beneath the blanket and in her right, she holds a katsina doll. Its shape suggests a colorful, stepped pyramid topped with feathers and sprigs of flowers. The figure holds her head slightly bowed; eyes cast downward. Her skin is brown, and she is barefoot. The illustration is flat with no shading. It is bordered by a double thin lines that create a frame but no other background detail on the cream ground. “Hopi Bride 1880” appears at bottom right.]
Flouting the Totem, 1949
Casein on paper
Sharon Pennington and her daughter Shannon, L2022.31.1
Howe demonstrates his growing ability to express movement through details, such as the hair of the rider and horse’s mane.
[Artwork Description: A vertical painting depicting a figure on horseback in the act of spearing a buffalo. The rider and two animals are pictured head on and are dramatically foreshortened. The buffalo is at right with its enormous head, high peaked back and hooves off the ground in the act of galloping. Its tufted tail raised in flight. At left, the rider raises a feathered lance above his head, directing it to the buffalo’s flank. The rider’s long hair held at the crown by a red band, flies upward with the movement of the chase. He wears only a gray breech cloth which also shows motion. The brown and white spotted horse holds his head low to the ground with at least one hoof shown off the ground in motion. The horse’s black tail and mane fly upward like the rider’s hair. The rider’s body and horse mirror one another with both their heads leaning towards and facing the buffalo. The ground is represented as brown striated layers with stylized yucca plants and brown clumps of grass. A stylized sky is represented by pale blue arching clouds that form a halo effect around the figures. Two stylized buffalo horns decorated with pale blue yellow and red are placed on either side of the cloud arch.]
Three Women, 1952–53
Tempera on paper
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, The University of Oklahoma; MFA Thesis selection, School of Art, 1953, cat. 1916, L2022.21.3
[Artwork Description: A horizontal painting depicting three women engaged in everyday activities. The three figures fill the picture and are posed in front of a large pale yellow crescent shaped hut at rear. A woman at right is seen bent over a shallow tan bowl washing her black hair. The pale red garment draped over her shoulders conceals much of her body and creates a crescent shape that repeats the hut’s curve behind her. Her head and hair are bent forward obscuring her face. Only her hands and a bit of her right forearm are visible, washing the hair that dips into bowl. At left, two figures sit back-to-back. The woman in front faces the viewer and in bent forward beading. She has black hair parted in the center and held with a pale red band around her forehead. She holds her face close to the beading and her hunched shoulders echo the other crescent shapes in the scene. She wears a blue and white garment and her beading lies on a tan shape suggesting a large stone. The figure behind her ear top left, sits upright, back to the viewer combing her long, black hair. Her pale red garment creates the same crescent shape seen elsewhere. The sky is depicted by dark blue, black and gray horizontal angular crescents. The hut is a pale-yellow with tan ends. The ground represented by a tiny pale red and blue organic pattern. Very little shading is used in the painting aside from a series of small stippling to indicate depth or folds on the garments.]
Woman Buffalo Dreamer, ca. 1952
Tempera on paper
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, The University of Oklahoma; Gift of Gertrude Phillips 1978, cat. 1978.250, L2022.21.2
[Artwork Description: A vertical abstract painting containing a large figure that fills much of the left side of the work. An abstracted figure of a woman is viewed from behind with smaller figures seen in the distance background. The figure is shown as a series of flattened planes in shades of deep purple. Triangular shapes combine to form a suggestion of a blanket perhaps wrapped around the figure. A large rectangular shape at the top resembles the black hair of the woman. Additional black stripes mimic strands of hair near the face. The suggestion of a cheekbone and eyelashes are also included. The shape is topped with a stylized headdress in the shape of a small white oval with two black spikes sticking straight up. The figure casts a shadow in light brown to the right on a wheat-colored background that stretches almost to the top of the painting. A narrow black band across the very top widens at right suggests the horizon line. Scattered, elongated figures dot the barren landscape casting their own line thin shadows. These figures seem to stand, blankets covering their heads, backs to the seated figure in the foreground. At center top, a small tipi in the far distance with a seated figure in a purple blanket faces the viewer.]
The Blind, 1953
Casein on paper
Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Museum purchase, 1953.8, L2022.27.5
[Artwork Description: A vertical abstract painting depicting at least three figures that seem composed of shapes and forms in brilliant colors. The foreground holds two figures that sit side by side in front another figure at the rear. The figure at right is almost three quarters the height of the painting. They wear a hooded cloak or garment in a deep blue. The cloak is broken up into shapes as it drapes and folds on the individual’s seated body. The profile of their face peeks out of the hood and is rendered in a bright red orange with their head slightly bowed, eyes closed. They hold up a single hand that is grasped by the wrist by the figure at the rear. At left, a figure of similar size is shown also wrapped in a garment. The red orange wrap matches the figure’s face coloring. Hanks of black hair hang partially covering the face and hand possibly belonging to this figure is positioned to the left of the head and grasps the arm of the figure in the rear. The rear figure is dressed in pale gray. They have their head down and are bent forward. A sliver of their red orang face is visible along with long black hair. Around the trio flat blocks of color seem to encompass them. Golden yellow, deep red, deep blue, brown, tan and burgundy are placed to frame the three figures. Contrasting stippling is used sparingly to shown shading in an otherwise painting of flat blocks of color. The artist’s name appears at lower right.]
Sioux Dancer, 1953
Casein on paper
Denver Art Museum, cat. 1953.459, L2022.20.1
[Artwork Description: Vertical abstract painting of a central male figure dancing exuberantly as five more figures surround him. The central figure is posed as if in mid leap. His left arm is raised high with a silver band at the bicep, and he holds a stylized shield of red with a black bird motif with a row of black tipped feathers with a yellow flowing tail. The dancer wears a yellow headdress that forms a shallow halo effect around his head. Two long white feathers with black tips extend from the headdress outward. The dancer’s black hair seems to radiate from his head on the left. His dark cocoa colored skin is decorated with a set of stripes on his nose and cheeks. He holds a long thin pipe in his mouth. A red and blue breech cloth shows the movement of the dance as it billows away from the body. The dancer’s left leg is bent at the knee and adorned with a row of round bells. Five other figures encircle the dancer. Three are stacked to the left and are shown in profile. The uppermost figure at top left extends a red cloaked arm and juts out his chin. His black hair is accented with two feathers. Below, another figure is shown in sharp profile with their head cloaked in gray and red. At bottom left, the last figure wears a bright yellow blanket or cloak that continues under the dancer at center to join with another figure at lower right. Their blanket is additionally striped with gray and navy and there is a drum in their lap. The last figure is positioned just above the center on the left side of the work. They face away from the dancer towards the right holding a drum. They wear a yellow blanket, round tasseled ornaments in their hair and red paint around the eyes. This figure’s lips are parted, and eyes are close. A dark textured background gradually lightens to a medium brown towards the bottom. The artist’s signature appears at lower right.]
Sioux War Dance, 1954
Tempera on paper
Montclair Art Museum, L2022.22.1
[Artwork Description: A horizontal painting depicting twelve male dancers encircling a central group of blanket clad figures on a deep forest green background. The scene is depicted in a flattened overview with the figures at the bottom of the work dramatically foreshortened. Each figure in the outer circle is shown in motion: feet and arms raised in the act of dancing, some with backs bent low, others dancing upright, mouths open perhaps in song. The figures have deep brown skin and black hair that is worn in various styles such as two or four side plaits or gathered at the nape. They wear red, deep purple or brown breech cloths with bright yellow and black moccasins with bells. Most wear either a bright yellow and orange roach headdresses or wear a single feather and band. They carry decorated staffs and wear colorful bustles comprised of feathers arranged in a circular formation and worn on the lower back. The central figures are viewed from behind and are each draped in patterned blankets in golden yellow, deep red, dark purple with self-colored rounded geometric patterns. These figures suggest being gathered around a drum while the others dance. The circular arrangement of the many figures and their unique poses give the painting a sense of dynamic motion conveyed in a modern graphic way.]
Shinny Game, 1952
Watercolor on paper
Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Museum purchase, 1952.9, L2022.27.6
[Artwork Description: A horizontal painting of five figures engaged in a stick and ball game seen as if from an overhead view. The figures appear to be floating in mid-air against an off-white background, all focused on a tiny white ball at the center of the painting. The figures reach and stretch long sticks that end in curved hooks towards the center. Their bodies lunge and twist with legs bent or extended. Their black hair flies in all directions as they pursue the ball. All wear navy blue breech cloths and white moccasins. They have a single blue stripe painted beneath each eye. The figures appear flattened with little shading and musculature delineated with simple lines.]
Dakota Duck Hunt, ca. 1945
Watercolor on paper
Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Museum purchase, 1947.28, L2022.27.3
Howe’s first entry in the Philbrook’s Indian Annual won the Grand Purchase Prize, a remarkable achievement for a first-time participant in such a significant and visible national competition.
[Artwork Description: A horizontal painting showing two hunters peering through tall, stiff grass, stalking ducks. The swath of sage green grass cuts across the painting dividing the painting into the duck filled pale beige sky above and the greenery and figures below it. The two male figures kneel behind tall grass beyond which lies a body of water. The hunters wear off-white leggings and pale red breech cloths and carry bow and quivers filled with arrows. Their backs are turned as they part the clumps of grass to view the ducks flying in inverted V shaped formations in the distance at right and left. More ducks that appear in closer range fly at the middle center in a triangular formations. The hunters kneel on sage green ground near an oval shaped shield covered in animal skin and greenery. A gray irregular border along the bottom with purple downward shoots suggests the ground and roots.]
Dance of the Heyoka, 1954
Casein on paper
Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Museum purchase, 1954.12, L2022.27.4
[Artwork Description: A horizontal abstract painting featuring irregular overlapping forms in shades of bright pinks, deep purples, light blues, navy blues, burgundy, beige and black. The organic shapes seem to float and meld together creating a field of interwoven pattern and color. Humanoid faces and body parts are interspersed throughout. A profile of a face hooded in blue appears at left. Several human heads with shocks of black hair float towards the center top. Torsos, front and back, feet, shod and unshod, legs and shoulders can all be discerned in the jumble of vivid color against the dark background. Mask-like faces appear as well. At least two birds are pictured. A gray bird with wing outstretched is visible at center left. Another more abstracted bird shape is depicted at top right. Most of the forms contain shades of a single color for example one complex form contains five shades of blue from light to dark. Several thin bands of striped color are sprinkled throughout the work. The artist’s name appears at lower right.]
The Letter
In 1958, Oscar Howe’s painting Umine Wacipi was rejected for competition in the “Indian Annual,” a major painting exhibition organized each year by the Philbrook Art Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The rejection letter referred to the submission as a fine painting, but “not Indian.” As a previous juror and recipient of multiple prizes over several years, Howe was deeply insulted. He fired back with an impassioned reply decrying the restrictive institutional definitions of American Indian art and declaring the artist’s right for individualism. His protest put into words the concerns brewing in the Native artist community and served as a catalyst for institutional change; his letter was used as a battle cry for the right of Native artists to freely express themselves for decades to come.
“Are we to be held back forever with one phase of Indian painting . . . ? We are to be herded like a bunch of sheep, with no right for individualism, dictated [to] as the Indian has always been.”
—Oscar Howe, 1958
Umine Wacipi, 1958
Casein on paper
Location unknown
Graphic reproduction
Umine Wacipi translates to “war and peace dance.” In this work, Howe used abstract shapes to represent the rhythmic sounds of the drum and singing. The original
painting was sold to private collector Anne Forbes, who later donated her collection to a non-profit; it has since been lost.
[Artwork Description: A horizontal abstract painting of five dancing figures. The figures are pictured in different poses, seemingly caught in motion. They twist, turn, bend, crouch and crawl within a background consisting of a large, brown ovoid shape with vertical jagged streaks of tan. Vertical blue irregular lines that appear to be sprouting leg-like roots appear at far right, center and left. Two individuals at left wear long calf-length, fringed tunics in shades of reddish browns. One has a blue face that suggests a mask and they raise a pipe over their head in one hand. The other tunic clad figure dances nearby and has their face obscured. Two figures on the right both have limbs bent in action and appear to be off the ground. Their breech cloths and hair are fluttering in mid-air. The last figure at far right crawls, body contorted with their head thrown back and mouth open. The figures almost seem as though they are being viewed from different angles all at once and create a sense of constant motion. The artist’s name appears at bottom right.]
Umine Dance, 1958
Casein and gouache on paper
Garth Greenan Gallery, New York, L2022.34.1
Howe created a second painting, titled Umine Dance, in 1958. Like the first, it is also a semi-representational depiction of sound and dance with a similar color palette.
Thirteenth Annual Contemporary American Indian Painting Exhibition brochure, May 6–29, 1958. Philbrook Art Center
Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma
[Transcription:
Foreword
With the 13th American Indian annual exhibition, Philbrook Art Center continues the museum’s policy of fostering the creation of works of art which, record, in an esthetically significant traditional style, the great cultural heritage of the original inhabitants of this continent. We are proud, once again, to present to the public the works of artists whose skill and understanding meet the high artistic and historic standards so successfully established by past exhibitions. Direct and powerful, American Indian painting at its best has brilliant yet inerrant color, a compelling sense of movement, and a subtle and harmonious unity within itself. Much of the work in this current exhibition bears handsome witness to these innate characteristics of American Indian Art.
The jury is in agreement on certain points.
- The overall quality of sculpture received was not equal to the quality of the paintings. For this reason, no prizes were given in this year’s sculpture competition. At the same time, since sculpture is one of the greatest traditional Indian crafts, it is hoped that the sculpture division will be continued and that further entries in sculpture will be received in future years.
- It is recommended that entry blanks include a statement to the effect that Indian artists may paint subjects drawn from other tribes, but must enter them under the division to which they themselves belong. If a scene of life in another tribe is presented, it must be correct in all details.
- The use of symbols that are not used by the artist’s own tribe, or related to the subject matter of a given painting is deplored. In the future, it is hoped that purely decorative elements that serve only to fill up space will be kept to a minimum, if not all together excluded. The jury feels strongly that the use of pseudo-symbols detracts, rather than adds, in any painting. The jury is convinced that the present Philbrook policy of asking artists to enter works executed in traditional style is a sound one. In general, we have adhered to it in selecting the paintings to be hung in the Indian Painting Annual. However, in a few cases where a painting in non-traditional style is of unusual value on its own merits we have stretched a point to include it. This is not to say that we recommend any change in the current policy – only that we hope we may be forgiven a reasonable flexibility in carrying it out.
Alice Marriott, University of Oklahoma
Dr. Williams S. Price, University of Tulsa
Jesse E. Davis, Oklahoma City, 1957 Grand Prize Winner]
[Artwork Description: Grainy black and white photo of five individuals standing in a semi circle against a wall holding three large works on paper. The first, Dr.William S. Price has short dark hair and wire glasses. He is wearing a dark suit, white shirt, and dark tie. He holds a work in his right hand. Next Alice Marriot has short curly dark hair and is wearing a light colored dress with light and dark vertical stripes. She holds the same paper that Prices holds, left hand holding the bottom and left the side. Next Denys P Myers has short dark hair and is wearing a dark suit, white shirt, and dark tie. He looks at Marriot and holds a large work in his right hand that hangs diagonally across his legs. Next Jeanne Snodgrass has short curly dark hair and is wearing a dark dress with a necklace. She looks to her left with a smile on her face. Much of her body is covered by a large paper work held up in front of her by Jesse E Davis. Davis has short dark hair and is wearing light colored pants and a light colored sweater. His left hand is extended holding the large paper work. A large window with curtains is visible behind him.]
Letter from Oscar Howe to curator Jeanne Snodgrass, April 18, 1958
Philbrook Art Center
Image courtesy of the Billie Jane Baguley Library and Archives, Heard Museum
[Transcription:
Miss Jeanne Snodgrass
Curator: American Indian Art
Philbrook Art Center
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Dear Miss Snodgrass:
Who ever said, that my paintings are not in the traditional Indian style, has poor knowledge of Indian Art indeed. There is much more to Indian Art, than pretty, stylized pictures. There was also power and strength and individualism (emotional and intellectual insight) in the old Indian paintings. Every bit in my paintings is a true studied fact of Indian paintings. Are we to be held back forever with one phase of Indian painting, that is the most common way? We are to be herded like a bunch of sheep, with no right for individualism, dictated as the Indian has always been, put on reservations and treated like a child, and only the White Man knows what is best for him. Now, even in Art, “You little child do what we think is best for you, nothing different.” Well, I am not going to stand for it. Indian Art can compete with any Art in the world, but not as a suppressed Art. I see so much of the mismanagement and treatment of my people. It makes me cry inside to look at these poor people. My father died there about three years ago in a little shack, my two brothers still living there in shacks, never enough to eat, never enough clothing, treated as second class citizens. This is one of the reasons I have tried to keep the fine ways and culture of my forefathers alive. 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.
Oscar Howe]
The Storyteller
Through decades of artistic growth and innovation, Howe remained a storyteller. The narratives within his paintings referenced sacred, secular, and historical Očhéthi Šakówiŋ knowledge. He believed it was his responsibility as an artist to record and share these stories with the public. Instead of drawing attention to contemporary struggles or conflict in his art like younger Native artists did in the 1960s, such as T. C. Cannon (Kiowa/Caddo, 1946–1978), Howe ascribed to a different type of activism. By sourcing imagery from Lakota and Dakota culture and beliefs, he explained, he could bring “the best thing of Indian culture into the modern way of life.”
Dakota Medicine Man, 1968
Casein on paper
South Dakota Art Museum, L2022.32.2
[Artwork Description: Horizontal painting of an abstracted central figure wearing a buffalo headdress gazing down at a turtle on a red platform while being encircled by nest-like streaks of white jagged lines. The figure is positioned centrally and takes up much of the work. He appears against a black oval shape encompassed by yellow ochre, khaki, and mossy green irregular bands and lines that form almost a nest like structure around the figure. White jagged streaks resembling lightening seem to encircle the figure and intensify at center bottom beneath the red platform structure displaying the turtle. The Medicine Man wears a horned buffalo headdress and has long gray straw like hair. His head is bowed, and his face is painted with yellow and brick red markings. His torso is represented by shades of blue that radiate outward from light blue near the turtle at waist height to the darker blues of his shoulders. The small blue, yellow and black turtle is shown in profile, its head slightly raised. It stands on a red structure that resembles a table with thick splayed legs. The contrast of dark and light colors together with the jagged streaks give the work a dynamic appearance. The artist’s signature and year appear at bottom right.]
Cultural Terms
Očhéthi Šakówiŋ or, as more commonly written, Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires, pronounced oh CHEH-tee shaw-KOH-we) is often the preferred name used by many of the Indigenous peoples whose traditional homelands encompass North and South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin and are generally known as the Santee (Eastern Dakota), Yankton (Western Dakota), and Lakota.
In Howe’s lifetime, scholars and tribal members most often used the term Sioux, derived from an early French translation of an Ottawa word, to collectively refer to people from these groups and bands. Although some believe the term to have a derogatory connotation, many communities still use the term, which is often part of official tribal names.
Howe consistently referred to himself as Dakota or Sioux in interviews and his writings. Many of his artworks drew from shared beliefs and practices among the Lakota and Dakota.
Evil Spirit of the Buffalo Dance, 1961
Casein on paper
Cutler Family Collection, L2022.30.1
In a dramatic moment, an evil spirit appears during a thirty-day dance to honor the buffalo and strikes fear in the participants, who turn away. The turtle shell at the bottom of the image was used as a drum during the Buffalo Dance. According to Howe, the color yellow symbolizes life and can be interpreted here as a hopeful sign that evil will be overcome.
[Artwork Description: Vertical painting of a blackened figure bursting forth at the top center while figures in the lower half turn away and shield themselves. The Evil Spirit appears as if leaping in mid-air elbows raised and jutting upward. His hair flies upward in geometric spikes. He is bare chested with leg coverings and a breech cloth. He’s rendered in black and gray against a multi pointed star that lightens towards the center to a bright yellow which seems to backlight the Evil Spirit. The bottom half of the painting holds five cowering figures that are foreshortened as if viewed from above. The figures are bare chested and draped in dark blue blankets that swirl with motion. Their long black hair billow around them, their muscled bodies depicted in shades of pinkish reds. A small turtle is shown is profile at the center bottom. The overall effect of the composition gives the sense of energetic intensity. The artist’s signature appears in lower right.]
Culture and Belief
While recovering from an illness as a child, Howe spent a great amount of time with his grandmother, Shell Face, who taught him about Dakota culture and beliefs. This experience deeply influenced Howe and would later form the foundation of the sophisticated content that distinguishes his work. He researched his content rigorously and believed that Native artists had a profound responsibility to understand the cultural subjects they portrayed.
“[My grandmother] would tell these stories, true ones, about culture and life and everything that was fine and good about the Dakota culture. In her native formal tongue, she told [about] the beautiful and wonderful [ceremonial] events. . . . I still remember them so clearly. . . . The language she used was so poetic and beautiful in song and in words, that I now try to equal them by giving them visual forms.”
—Oscar Howe, 1977
Onktomi and Ducks, No. 2, 1976
Casein on paper
University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.26.16
[Artwork Descriptions: A horizontal painting of a male figure appearing to be falling through a chasm in a deep blue space amid several ducks in flight. The individual lies diagonally across the center of the painting, arms open wide, head back and turned to the right. His legs are bent at the knee. His long black hair flies upward, his eyes seem half closed and his lips are parted. The deep rust red breech cloth he wears billows outward. The musculature of his chest, abdomen, and arms are clearly defined. Two large ducks in mid-flight are positioned at each of the figure’s outstretched hands. Another two are near his feet. The duck at lower left appears to be sitting or standing while its counterpart at lower right is shown in profile in the act of running and taking flight. Surrounding the figure and ducks are angular shards in shades of blue from light to dark. They form an oval shaped ring around the falling figure with its center being one of the darker shades of blue. This gives the appearance of the figure falling. The artist’s signature and year appear at lower right.]
Skin Painter, 1968
Casein on paper
University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.26.18
[Artwork Description: Horizontal painting of an abstracted central figure painting a motif on a large skin encircled by weblike shards in blues and brown. The hooded figure kneels or is seated on a light brown skin that is stretched taut and pegged flat. The figure wears an angular dark blue hood and applies paint to a diamond shaped motif on the skin. The figure is encompassed by swirling elongated blue and white shards. The shards fracture and multiply behind the figure creating a cave or cocoon structure around them. Shades of brown accent the blues that deepen to almost black in each of the four corners. The artist’s signature and year appear in lower right.]
Ghost Dance, 1960
Casein on paper
University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.26.9
[Artwork Description: Horizontal painting showing three figures at the center of a mass of swirling colors including blue-grays, grays, white, black, brown and orange. The three figures form a triangle with one at top and two below on either side of the first. At bottom center below the figures’ feet is a small campfire with curlicue flames is depicted in browns and orange. Stylized swirls of grays and blues waft upward enveloping the three figures, suggesting smoke. The colors meet with white, creams, browns, and rusty orange. The figures appear wrapped in the wafting swirls. The individual at top center is bare chested, extends his arms outward gripping buffalo horns in his left hand. His head lolls back, his eyes closed and long black hair flowing freely. White and gray swirls obscure his lower body. The bottom figure at left also holds a set of buffalo horns. He is shown is profile, his plaited hair swinging wildly in the air. The last figure at right poses on one knee, head thrown back, hair fluttering in air, his left hand clawing the air. The musculature of the three dancers is clearly defined in a flat modernist style. The artist’s signature appears at lower right.]
Heyoka Ceremony, 1972
Casein on paper
Oscar Howe Family Collection, University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.25.4
[Artwork Description: Horizontal painting of abstract scenes amid large modernist swirling shapes in teals and pea greens. The work is roughly divided in two halves. On the right, a large bubble-like structure holds a figure that appears to be falling through space. They are foreshortened and appear angled so their head and shoulders are closest to the viewer and their feet trail to the rear. They are in profile, looking left and smiling at the other scenes. Their long hair appears to fly upward as they float or fall. Their left arm extends downward towards a tiny fire. Light colored lines radiate outward from the individual’s finger. They are surrounded by whirling organic shapes in dark teal, pea green, pale gray and cream. At left, a smaller bubble-like structure shows two scenes. The first portrays two musicians singing and beating a large drum positioned between the two. This scene is small in comparison to the falling figure at right. Below the musicians a light-haired figure seems to crawl towards the left reaching out to grasp a pale colored object, possibly a shell. These two scenes are also surrounded by whirling shapes. The upper left corner holds a styled buffalo head emblem, a teal oval with double black horns. At top center a highly stylized representation of a bird in flight is shown with black outstretched wings a jagged cream body. The artist’s signature and year appear at lower right.]
Cultural Figures
Howe was raised with Dakota cultural and spiritual beliefs but was also an active Episcopalian. The blending of and interconnectedness between these two belief systems is apparent in his paintings of Native and Christian cultural figures. In the story of Buffalo Calf Woman, the wings of the eagle echo the appearance of an angel, while Jesus Christ at the crucifixion appears in a transcendent state reminiscent of sun dancers in his other works.
The Dakota art of painting . . . has given me direction, purpose, substance and art, an art which is . . . a true reflection of culture, not a bastardly exploitation.
—Oscar Howe, 1969
Day Figure of the Buffalo Dance, 1964
Casein on paper
Oscar Howe Family Collection, University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.25.11
[Artwork Description: Vertical painting of a red and whited striped figure emerging from brown and tan sharp-edged fragments against a navy-blue ground. The figure is contorted with their head turned toward the left while their body faces right. Their shoulders are parallel with the left edge of the work. Their legs appear at right one leg kicking out towards the viewer, the other bent at the knee. Brown and tan shards partially cover the figures torso and lend a sense of frenetic movement. The figure’s body is red with vertical white stripes. The hands at lower left and mid upper right grip buffalo horns in fingers clenched like claws. The individual’s face is also red but appears in a slight shadow with gray stripes on the cheeks and across the bridge of the nose. A multi-pointed star headdress, perhaps made of feathers, adorns the long black hair that becomes jagged lines as it billows from the figure’s head. The figure is surrounded by the jagged fragments that form triangular shapes in shades of browns and tans. They add to the sense lively movement. The artist’s signature appears at lower right.]
Dance of the Tree Dwellers, 1956
Opaque watercolor on illustration board
24344/13; Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Laboratory of Anthropology, Santa Fe, New Mexico, L2022.23.2
While most of Howe’s paintings illustrate shared cultural beliefs and stories among the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ peoples, Dance of the Tree Dwellers depicts a specific Dakota subject, mischievous small creatures of the forests known as Tree Dwellers.
[Artwork Description: Horizontal painting of three dynamic male figures set against a sky-blue background. The three figures dance in a circle. The dancer at top center is pictured as if viewed from above. His body is dramatically foreshortened, his arms spread wide, his head jutting towards the center of the work. Two more figures flank him, arms and legs bent akimbo. Their black spiky hair appears to fly in all directions with their movement. Fringe at their wrists and ankles flare out in starlike patterns. Thin angular spiky shards in the same reds used as the figure’s skin color surround and overlap the scene adding to the sense of frenetic movement. They each wear a pale peach colored mask that bear toothy grins. White feathers with black tips adorn the top center figure’s quiver on his back and the dancer at right wears one in his hair. The artist’s name appears at bottom right.]
Origin of the Sioux, 1960
Casein on paper
Oscar Howe Family Collection, University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.25.13
[Artwork Description: Vertical painting of a large winged, female figure floating in mid-air above a small island containing two young children. The winged figure wears a long taupe garment with fringed hem and sleeves. The fringe flies upward as she appears to descend. A pair of red stripes cross her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. Her head is turned in profile to the left with her eyes closed, lips parted slightly. Her black hair swirls around her head in wave like contours. Two large dark brown wings frame the figure, stretching out to the upper corners of the work. Beyond the wings a multi pointed prismatic sunburst pattern illuminates the figure. The background becomes a gradient from lightest at the center and closest to the figure and rippling outward in narrow bands to deep blues at the outer edges of the work. The figure holds her left palm to her chin and her right hand is a closed fist. Her legs are slightly bent, toes of her moccasins pointed down toward the tiny patch of land. On the bit of land are two small children who reach up to the winged figure. They wear off-white leggings and red breech cloths. Their black hair flutters around them. The child on the right holds a flower in their right hand. Two short trees or shrubs have spiky leaves that shoot from their many branches. Grasses, both green and brown grow beneath the shrubs. Deep sea blue surrounds the small island and light blue foam laps at its base. The artist’s signature appears at lower right.]
Indian Christ, 1972
Casein on paper
Aktá Lakota Museum & Cultural Center, St. Joseph’s Indian School, Chamberlain, South Dakota, L2022.18.1
Overt depictions of Christianity were rare in Howe’s work. This painting of the crucifixion, created as a design for the apse of the church he attended in Vermillion, South Dakota, is a remarkable exception. The Christ figure is illustrated at the moment of death and transfiguration, his body losing its earthly connection and floating away from the cross, reminiscent of Howe’s Sun Dance paintings as the dancers enter a state of ecstasy.
[Artwork Description: A vertical painting with an arched top depicting a figure hanging from a cross as viewed in profile. The figure is viewed as if from the side with the body arching away from the cross while the feet and wrist remain close to the cross. A slender tan strip at left represents the cross. The figure’s head is bowed with their long black hair falling forward. A white breech cloth is the only clothing. The figure’s musculature is clearly defined in the arms, legs, and chest. Swirling blues in light and dark shades make up the background giving a sense of movement. At the figure’s torso height, two round gray forms appear with black feathers on their outer edges. The painting forms a point at center top like an arched church window. The artist’s signature appears at lower right.]
Historical Subjects
Howe did not use his art to directly challenge his viewers or drive them to question either the contemporary depravations of the reservation system or the racism endured by Native peoples in the Midwest. Because he rarely depicted past or current events, he largely avoided engaging in politics. Only a few powerful exceptions in Howe’s oeuvre depict historical violence and critique.
Origin of the Sioux, ca. 1955
Casein on paper
Cutler Family Collection, L2022.30.2
[Artwork Description: A vertical painting of a female figure with two infants depicted with a large bird with outstretched wings rising behind her. The figure takes up most of the length of this painting. She wears a long buff colored garment that has long fringe at the sleeves and hemline. She holds an infant in her arms and carries another on her back. The three each have dark brown skin and black hair. The adult figure wears red facial markings over the bridge of her nose, on her cheeks and forehead. She wears moccasins on her feet, and they appear to be pointing downward as if she is alighting on the small teal island set in a dark blue ground. She looks up and to the left as does the child carried on her back. Behind the trio, a large gray and white bird rises with wings spread wide. The wings fan outward, beginning as an off-white and finishing in separate gray and dark gray feathers. The bird’s off-white head and throat is pictured from as if from below, with is beak is slightly open. Above the beak is a small, round emblem almost the same deep burgundy as the background color. It’s encircled by two horns and flanked by two tassels and two smoke like shapes at center and top. A tree with jagged branches and spiky tufts for leaves appears behind the floating figure. The artist’s signature appears at lower right.]
Calling on Wakan Tanka, 1962
Casein on paper
University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.26.19
Paintings such as Calling on Wakan Tanka are loaded with detail about cultural practices. Here Howe depicts a family of three who, as he described, “are appealing to the Great Spirit” to stop a destructive storm that has already left wildfires in its wake. The mother performs a “smoke prayer” while the father, facing the storm, is “at the end of the prayer” when “a flash of light bursts through the storm clouds” in a subtle, hopeful rainbow of color.
[Artwork Description: Horizontal painting depicting three stylized figures in the act of supplication before a stormy sky, a sunburst motif, and wispy flames. The figure at center stands clad in a red breech cloth that cascades to the ground. He holds a long pipe above his bowed head. Strands of black hair snake away from the body and reach well below hip level. A sunburst motif appears around the figure’s head. Its center is an off-white that deepens to pale peach then a pale teal, finally becoming dark blue. Angular shapes of dark blue and black surround the sunburst suggesting a dark stormy sky that composes the top third of the painting. The figure and sunburst are flanked by two dark gray abstract birds. At the center figures feet is the white skull of a buffalo with two black upturned horns. Two other figures crouch low on either side of the central figure. At left, a female figure smokes tobacco from a slender gray pipe held to a small mound on the ground while lighting it with a stick. Her body is foreshortened and her long black hair spreads over her back in on separated strands. She wears a red and white garment that conceals all but her hands and forearm. Smoke rises is thin ribbons upwards to the left and out towards the right of the painting. The male figure at right kneels facing left with his head slightly raised. His body is bent low over his knees. He appears to be watching the central figure. He wears long black braid and a red breech cloth and holds two gray and red striped sticks with tiny pouches on their ends. Near this figure’s head is a gray rock with a darker gray handprint. A semi-circle of wispy orange and red flames surround the three figures. They are angular and are just slightly higher that the crouching figures in height. The ground beneath the figures is a deep teal. The artist’s signature appears at lower right.]
Planning sketch (Wounded Knee Massacre), 1959-60
Pencil on paper
University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.26.25
[Artwork Description: A horizontal pencil sketch depicting a row of ten figures aiming rifles downward. Eight stand and one, the first on the left, kneels. They all hold rifles, wear boots, and either broad brimmed hats or caps. Two wear long coats and the rest wear a similar uniform of pants and a shirt. The central figure stands slightly behind the eight with his arms raised. He holds a sword and flag over his head while raising his chin high. Rifles are shown held straight up seeming by the figures shown only by the tops of the heads standing behind the first row. All the figures seem to frown as they aim their rifles except for the first standing figure at far left. He appears to turn to the right and look at the next figure. Other vignettes are seen at the far right and left sides of the main group, and they are penciled in lightly. The paper itself is yellowed and bears marks of being rolled or folded.]
Wounded Knee Massacre, 1960
Casein on paper
Graphic reproduction
Collection of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum & Boyhood Home, Abilene, Kansas
Howe claimed that his painting of the Wounded Knee Massacre “was not meant to be a shocker but merely a recorded true event.” In this depiction, Howe represents the US Cavalry as a monolithic killing machine in contrast to the suffering and humanity of the Lakota men, women, and children massacred on December 29, 1890, at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota.
[Artwork Description: A horizontal painting divided into two halves. The top depicts a row of ten light-skinned figures with blonde and red hair and beards, nine aiming rifles downward, and one in the center standing with head titled back looking up at his right hand which holds a long silver sword while his left hand is extended into the air, fist clutched tight as it holds a flag that is red on the top and white on the bottom, both colors coming to a point on the right and the letter G on the white portion. The two figures on the ends of the line kneel while pointing their riffles downward. They stand forward and they are painted without a lot of depth, appearing almost flat. They all wear black boots and blue-gray uniforms with pants and long jackets with a light blue belt and sash. The dessert ground at both ends of the line has several chaotic lines in it. A second line of soldiers stand behind the first line with just their bayonets and some tops of black hats visible. Behind them to the right is a soldier playing a bugle, a soldier pointing his gun at figure kneeling on the ground, and a third that appears to have murdered a figure laying on the ground. Between them is a flagpole with a large American flag that looks tattered. Behind in the distance are barely distinguishable figures and horses. To the left of the row a soldier stands in the background loading a cannon with the right hand while holding another American flag with the left. Beyond him is a circle of Indian figures wearing tan clothing and standing with hands in the air. Beyond them at the horizon the sky is filled with a solid dark gray and blue cloud bank. The bottom half of the painting shows twenty-two figures of Indians, mostly men and women, but also one baby in the front left. Their bodies are depicted in hues of red and they have long black hair. Some wear tan breech cloths and some wear blue and gray skirts and robes. Many have large wounds on their sides, backs, arms, hands, or necks. One near the center is missing his right hand. Their bodies are angular and appear in despair as they die, heads thrown to the front or back, arms flailing, legs, bent. They appear to make a pile with the limbs of those on top outstretched as they fall into the pit. The steep edge of the pit is dark gray with black cracks and the floor is covered with bright red pools of blood and silver streams that resemble water mixed in the blood. A white flag on a long wooden pole falls into the pit next to a figure on the left.]
Fleeing a Massacre, 1969
Casein on paper
BankWest, Pierre, South Dakota, L2022.19.1
In this image, a young girl cries out as she rides a bloodied horse whose nostrils flair from stress and fatigue. Howe based this painting on the story of his grandmother Shell Face, who Howe said had “herself had been in attacks by the whites, she had a scar on her hand where she had been shot through the hand by white soldiers.”
[Artwork Description: A vertical painting depicting a female figure on horseback surrounded by elongated modernist shapes that form an oval around the pair. The rider sits astride a gray horse with her head thrown back and mouth open. The fringe on her long buff colored tunic flies backward with the forward motion of the horse. Her black hair seems to whip around her neck and flutters in midair. She wears reg leggings, buff moccasins and belt composed of light gray disks, and long red, blue and white earrings. The horse is a pale gray with its sinewy musculature clearly defined. It is pictured mid-gallop with all four hooves drawn together off the ground. Its mouth is open showing a row of bottom teeth, its nostrils flare and it is wild eyed with large pupils rimmed in red. The horse’s mane sticks straight out from its neck in stiff jagged spikes. A splash of red appears just where the neck meets the back. The red color runs down in streaks and spatters a few drops on the front legs. Encircling the ride and horse are a swirl of elongated shapes in red, gray, buff, and blue that thicken and spike then narrow to a sliver again. Some of the shapes resemble stylized faces or skulls or even animals. The concentric circles of these shapes create a frenetic sense of movement. A distorted American flag reduced to a thin squiggle of red and white stripes and white stars on blue ground appears just above and to the left of the rider’s head. It appears to be directly in her line of vision. These elements are set against a plain black background. The artist’s name appears in the lower right corner.]
Sun Dance, ca. 1934–38
Gouache on bristol board
Museum of the South Dakota State Historical Society, Pierre, SD, 1990.001.012, L2022.33.1
In this very early painting created while attending high school, Howe’s understanding of anatomy is limited, and a conventional frontal viewpoint frames the four sun dancers. Howe paid a great deal of attention to setting the scene within a grass enclosure. The pole and clothing include meticulous detail.
[Artwork Description: A horizontal painting rendered in a simple pictorial style depicting four men and a Sun Dance pole in a green grassy clearing. The painting is flat with little perspective. The top half holds a wide oval shape of unpainted board bordered by blades of dark green grass. The lower half holds a similar semi-circle of unpainted board enclosed by individual blades of lighter green grass. Four men stand, two on each side of the Sun Dance pole, at center. The pole is blue and white striped with a forked top. A red cloth and the shape of a man and a buffalo hang near the top. Thin lines representing ropes attach to the chest of the four men that stand below. The men face front, bare chested, wearing their hair long, with blue garments around their waist accented with sashes and moccasins on their feet. Blood drips down their chest from the wounds made from attaching the ropes. Two gesture with their arms while the other two men keep their hands by their sides.]
Sun Dance, ca. 1949
Watercolor on paper
Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Museum purchase, 1949.29.9, L2022.27.2
Howe returned to the subject of the Sun Dance more than a decade after first painting the ceremony. The influence of the Studio style can still be seen in the flat colors and outlines, but he has mastered the proportions and anatomy of the human figure. The dancers are clearly captured in motion and two pull against the pole. Howe’s focus on figures viewed from behind, particularly with regard to the musculature of the back, is becoming more prominent.
[Artwork Description: A vertical painting depicting three figures in a clearing attached to a striped pole via ropes. The pole stands in the middle of the work with its three-pronged upper branches at center top. Figures stand at left and right of the pole with bodies angled away creating taut ropes. A third figure is posed at bottom center. This figure is kneeling with their back to the viewer. Their arms are stretched out to the sides and their head lolls to the right. They have black hair dressed in two plaits, wear a blue garment around their waist and moccasins. Light gray sprigs of sage fall from their outstretched hands to the ground. Two slender ropes with bits of red on the ends appear to be recoiling from the figure in the space just above him. The two standing figures are similar to the kneeling one. They have long black hair, are shirtless and wear red leggings with blue breech clothes. The pole is slender with blue and white stripes. Near its upper leafy branches are the shapes of a buffalo and a man with a red hanging cloth and fringe. The trio and the pole are depicted in a clearing with a sandy buff colored ground flanked on the upper left and right by lanky greenery that parts in the center to reveal an open expanse of ground with distance tipis and foliage. The sky above them is an off white. ]
Sioux Sun Dancer, n.d.
Casein on paper
South Dakota Art Museum, L2022.32.1
In this painting, the viewer has become part of the action, looking up at an extreme angle at the moment the dancer has broken loose from the pole, his limp body falling to the ground. The pole and a drummer are relegated to background elements while our attention is drawn to the exhausted dancer’s damp hair and the contours of his arms and back.
[Artwork Description: A vertical painting of a figure falling to the ground with his head bent low and arms bent at the elbows in different directions and knees folded under him. The figure’s body is a rich red brown color and fills much of the picture and appears very close to the viewer. The figure’s face is not visible, his long black hair swings forward with the motion of the fall. The contours of the figure’s shoulders and arm muscles are clearly defined. In his raised right hand he holds a long pipe with a tiny pouch on the end. In his left, he clasps a sprig of gray sage while more fall away. Drops of blood dot his thigh. Below the crumpled figure is the dark shadow of his body having not yet made contact with the ground. Above him, is the dramatically foreshortened blue and white striped Sun Dance pole and the ropes flying free from his body now. At right, is a tall stand of greenery while at left bottom a small figure represents a drummer as viewed from a distance. At pale disk with stylized wings sit in the pale creamy yellow sky at upper right.]
Master of Color and Design
Oscar Howe emulated the practice of traditional Dakota artists in his designs, color choices, and application. His technique and choices were deliberate. His artistic predecessors—painters who worked on animal hides—studied the empty surface, according to Howe, “without touching it physically but, visually establishing esthetic spots for the final objectification or abstraction.” Howe referred to this technique as “point and line.” His color choices were also often symbolic and rooted in historical sources, such as painted parfleches (rawhide containers). Blue, red, yellow, and black dominated his work. Despite his varied sources, Howe saw no contradiction between authentic Dakota and modern art.
“It is my greatest hope that my paintings may serve to bring the best things of Indian culture into the modern way of life.”
—Oscar Howe, 1970
Sun Dance
Over the course of his career, Howe returned to certain subjects he found intriguing for their design possibilities, the significance of the subject matter, or both. The Sun Dance ceremony—specifically the moment when dancers break free from the pole in a moment of transcendence—held particular fascination. Whether Howe ever participated in the ceremony remains unknown, since the practice was largely suppressed in his lifetime.
Sacro-Wi-Dance (Sun Dance), 1965
Casein on paper
University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.26.6
By the 1960s, Howe no longer used conventional perspective in painting the Sun Dance; the viewpoint is that of a participant, looking up from below. The dancers have completely lost their earthly connection as their bodies dissolve into swirls of ecstasy. The pole is viewed at an acute angle, and it, too, appears to sway and bend as the rules of physics slip away.
[Artwork Description: A vertical abstract painting of two figures and a Sun Dance pole depicted in a swirling mass of yellows, oranges, and reds. The figures are portrayed only partially and in a foreshortened manner. At upper right, the larger figure is depicted slightly bent forward with a bare torso and flowing long black hair. The contours of the body are depicted using flat planes of color. The lower portion of their body devolves into rounded shapes of deep reds and rust colors which further morph into swirling oranges and yellows. At lower left another figure is viewed as if looking down onto the top of their head. Their long black hair swirls upward in the churning yellows and oranges that create a circular shape around the two figures. The corners deepen to a rusty orange. At the very center, a foreshortened striped, Sun Dance pole is depicted intersecting a yellow disk. At lower right, a swatch a flowing hair emerges from a yellow and orange swirl. The artist’s name appears at lower right.]
Sun Dancer, 1967
Casein on paper
Oscar Howe Family Collection, University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.25.3
The dancer in this painting is in a state of rapture, his body limp and floating, and no dance grounds or other people are visible. He has left earthly reality and reached a state of transcendence, as prayer offerings of sage and several painted sticks—his last tie to the physical manifestation of the dance—drop from his hands.
[Artwork Description: A vertical abstracted painting depicting a dancer amid overlapping shards of blue shapes. The figure is almost as tall at the painting. They are posed with their body facing the viewer and their head turned down and to the left. Their right hand is raised with their palm open. Sprigs of gray sage fall from their hand. Their left arm hangs loosely from the elbow and reveals slender pipes with tiny pouches on the ends falling. The figure’s legs are bent so the calves are not visible, but their blue and red decorated moccasins are. The dancer’s mouth is agape, and the gaze is downward. They wear stylized spiky white feathers at the crown and their hair rises in jagged spines in a linear zig zag fashion. Flat planes of color are used to denotes the body’s contours. A red breech cloth seems to billow forth amid the zig zagged lines that cross the figure in blues and white. The dancer is surrounded in shards of blues that begin light around the outer edges and darken as they approach the figure’s body creating the effect that the figure is perhaps falling into a chasm. The artist’s signature and year appear at bottom right.]
Animal Lyricism
“Art . . . is altruistic and exists independently. Something for intellect and emotions . . . art is never without meaning.” —Oscar Howe
Howe regularly looked to animals for inspiration. Birds, horses, antelope, bison, and other creatures appear in paintings with direct cultural references but also as stand-alone subjects. In these poetic vignettes, the artist revels in the beauty and design sourced from the distinctive characteristics of animals in motion: the tangling antlers of fighting bucks in a swirl of energy, the distinctive horse manes that transform into scribbled black lines, or the lyrical and spry jumping of a group of deer in a rocky landscape.
Fighting Bucks, 1967
Casein on paper
National Museum of the American Indian 27/0217, L2022.24.3
[Artwork Description: Horizontal abstract painting of two bucks amid a swirling oval of blues, grays, and earthy purples. The bucks are pictured in the center of the churning colors that curl and weave around the animals like smoke. The bucks are shown only partially with bodies either foreshortened or dissolving altogether in the roiling colors. The buck at left is shown in profile with wide, wild eyes, and an open mouth. Its antlers tangle with the other buck to the right. This buck’s head is viewed from the back with both ears flattened to their head. The entwined antlers appear in a circular patch of earthy muted purple with wisps of orange and red. Irregular rings of the muted purple encircle the animals along with pale blue smoky tendrils that seems to waft in and around the pair. Bits of peach appear in the rings with the buff colors of the bucks interspersed here and there. A deeper gray blue serves as background. The artists signature and year appear at lower right.]
Horses, 1963
Casein on paper
South Dakota Art Museum, L2022.32.3
[Artwork Description: Vertical abstract painting of three pale gray horses with tails and manes portrayed in linear strokes against a swirling background red and orange. The animals are only partially represented with two having backs spotted in brownish red and the third shown only as a head at upper right. Manes and tails are rendered in frenetic linear fashion like having been scratched into the work in gray and black. The horses form a circular pattern over a background of golden yellow, deep reds and orange swirls that deepen at the outer corners to a very deep brownish red. The artist’s signature appears at lower right.]
Deer Dance, 1960
Casein on paper
Private Collection, L2022.29.1
[Artwork Description: Horizontal abstract painting of five deer appearing to scamper in all directions against a rocky mountainous setting. The deer are all pictured in almost frenzied motion. They are positioned in two rows. Two are pictured in the upper portion of the painting and three along the bottom portion. One appears to leap gracefully at upper left, but the others fly in the air with limbs and hooves jutting at odd angles from their bodies. Flat planes of buff, brown, gray, and rust create the animals. Peach and tan rocks with stylized vegetation and gray craggy, leafless trees form the background. Dark shades of smokey blue, dark teal and black make the upper two deer’s light color pop against the dark sky and mountains. The artist’s signature appears at bottom right.]
Dancers, 1969
Casein on paper
University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.26.14
[Artwork Description: Vertical abstract painting of several dancers rendered in a multitude of fragmented shards of color. At least three figures are included with the largest located in center of the lower portion of the work. They appear to have an arm bent at the elbow and their head tossed back. Irregular geometric shapes compose the hair in shades of black and grays as well as the dancer’s body in shades of taupe and browns. Red angular shapes hint at a breech cloth fluttering with motion. Two other figures appear above. Details are harder to discern but similar colors are used to illustrate these. The three dancers are surrounded by faceted shapes that begin as pale blue at the center of the painting and deepen at the radiate outward to become deep blues at the corners of the work. The artist’s signature and year appear in the lower right corner.]
Fracturing Space
“I have been labelled wrongfully a Cubist.”
Oscar Howe, 1981
Howe’s mature compositional approach involved transforming subjects and backgrounds into a series of fractured planes using two-dimensional, flat surfaces to represent a three dimensional space. Much to his frustration, a pervasive narrative emerged in the scholarship asserting that his artwork was influenced by cubism. Some even leapt to the false conclusion that Howe was exposed to European art while in Germany during his wartime service. While Howe was thoroughly educated in European and American art traditions of the twentieth century, he insisted that his art in both form and execution was deeply rooted in Dakota compositional and philosophical traditions.
Retreat, 1969
Casein on paper
University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.26.3
[Artwork Description: Horizontal abstract painting of irregular shapes and shards of golds, oranges, tans, and browns converge to mimic the facets of a jewel. The lighter shades make a rough oval with the darker shades serving as a background. Yellows and golds overlap, and jut chaotically and seemingly tumble over one another. There are two darker areas in the oval. At left, dark brown shards cluster opposite a smaller dark brown shard at right. That cluster is overlaid with smaller light shards giving the appearance of light from a darkened space. The artist’s signature appears at lower right.]
Cunka Wakan (Dakota Horse), 1966
Casein on paper
University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.26.13
[Artwork Description: Horizontal image of a horse in motion suspended in a faceted field of reds and blues. The horse is pictured in the center of the work with all four legs flexed as if in motion. Dozens of shard-like shapes make up both the horse and the background. The horse’s body is shades of blue gray with its head, chest and rump depicted in shades of red. Dark grays make up the long, jagged mane, hooves and tip of the tail. Surrounding animal is a halo of pale gray shards that make the horse appear to glow against the background as it deepens to pinks and finally deep cranberry reds at the outer edges. The artist’s signature appears at lower right.]
Meditation, 1968
Casein on paper
University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.26.7
[Artwork Description: Vertical abstract painting of irregular shards and geometric shapes in shades of pale to deep blues. The work evokes a quilt like pattern with each sharp, individual shape being different than the next. Deep blues, almost blacks and pale gray blues juxtapose creating dynamic movement. Lines cut across the painting where shapes align, shifting the viewer’s focus. The almost black shades tend to be clustered in the far corners of the work while the pale blue grays create a loose oval pattern in the center. The artist’s signature and year appear at lower right.]
Ceremonial Dancer, 1966
Casein on paper
Oscar Howe Family Collection, University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.25.7
[Artwork Description: Vertical abstract painting of a dancing figure depicted in profile amid swirling shapes and lines against a black background. The figure is turned to the left hunched forward arms outstretched. Their legs are drawn up as if in the act of jumping. Their body is portrayed using flat rounded mustard yellow and orange shapes to convey a muscular build. Their brown hair swings forward and is highlighted with strands of red. A light gray spiky halo appears around the head. A deep brown breech cloth billows as does the brown cloak which appears to be draped over one arm that holds a dark club. Elongated, spiky shapes swirl around the figure in a circular They thicken and thin irregularly, interspersed shots of red line that seems to ricochet back and forth across the black background. The art’s signature appears at lower right.]
Point and Line: Defining the Figure
Despite the abstract turn in Howe’s mid-career work, most of Howe’s paintings remain figurative. His foundation for a range of experimentation in form was a point-and-line composition technique: after contemplating an empty sheet of paper, as his artistic forebearers had examined a prepared animal hide, he established several points of interest from which he built his complex line drawings. His planned subject emerged from these points on the page as he added flat planes and facets.
In some paintings, the figure is easily identified. In others, shapes and lines take on a life of their own: black hair becomes dramatic spikes, dancers are subsumed by spinning swirls of color, and a horse and rider become indistinct, interconnected shapes.
“Composing through esthetic points has become part of my working process, though in my work it is not a formal ceremony.”
—Oscar Howe, 1969
Buffalo Dancer, ca. 1960
Casein on paper
University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.26.12
[Artwork Description: A square, abstract rendering of a dancer against an off-white ground. The dancer is posed with head bowed low, arms held out from his sides and feet in midair with legs deeply bent. The figure and his accoutrements are depicted with sharp angular shapes that are propelled out into the space around him. He carries a two headed club and shield. Red and tan ribbons billow in zigzags from his body as does his blue breech cloth. His black hair spikes outward from his head in an X. The black fringe of his moccasins mimics the X pattern. The sharp shapes lens a sense of frenetic movement. The artist’s signature is at lower right.]
Woman War Dancer, 1965
Casein on paper
Oscar Howe Family Collection, University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.25.6
[Artwork Description: Vertical painting featuring an abstracted female figure surrounded by sharp angled shards in purples, peach, rusty red and blue. The figure’s head appears at the upper center of the work, tilted right with mouth agape. Her black hair shoots away from her neck in long spikes. A fragmented oval shape encircles her head. The striped edges resemble long fringe of a tunic in blue and gray and pink and purple. A single hand in pinks and purple is visible at right near her torso. Irregular shapes in pink, purple and pale gray represent legs either folded beneath her or drawn upward in dance. Another fragmented oval surrounds the leg shapes with similar fringe like stripes. Elongated, irregular geometric shapes overlap and intersect around the figure and her garments creating a nestlike frame. The deeper colors like eggplant, and dark burgundy are closer to her body and lighten to peach and purples as they move towards the outer portions of the painting. Pale lavender fills the corners and the artist’s signature appears at lower right.]
Celebration of Nature (Dancer), 1970
Casein on paper
University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.26.17
[Artwork Description: A vertical abstract painting featuring a figure depicted in fractured shapes in reds, salmon, blues, purple and black. The figure’s face is the only feature identifiable. It appears at top left in profile as a bowed head with black and gray hair and closed eyes on face in shades of red and pink. They rest of the figure is conveyed as sharp, flat shapes in blues and deep purple. Angular shapes jut and protrude, layering to create new shades. Narrow pointed shards suggest feathers near the figure’s upper back. An elongated striped triangle may hint at a textile or fringe. The layering of shapes and their sharpness give the work a sense of busy movement. They are surrounded with larger shapes in salmon pink, and reds that complete the background. The artist’s signature is at lower right.]
Rider, 1968
Casein on paper
University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.26.11
[Artwork Description: A horizontal, abstract painting composed of two larger masses of blue gray on a corn yellow ground overlaid with shard-like shapes in red, orange, brown, black, gray and blue. The larger blue shapes are somewhat horizontal and resemble elongated diamond shapes set on their sides, one above the other. A collection of shapes like triangles and rhomboids with sharp acute edges overlay the large blue shapes. They create patterned weblike structures that end in linear spikes that pierce the yellow background. The artist’s signature and the year appear at lower right.]
Woman Scalp Dancer, 1964
Casein on paper
Oscar Howe Family Collection, University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.25.5
[Artwork Description: Vertical abstracted painting of a female figure posed in the center of the work over colorful patterns and shapes. The figure is depicted from the front with her head bowed and arms held out from her sides. Her long tunic is portrayed in shades of blues, grays, and whites. Gray and white striped segments at the sleeves, waist and hem hint at long fringe. A zig zag bolt is found on the tunic shown in shades of blue. Her black hair is center parted and becomes sharp, jagged zig zags that bristle with movement. The same black jagged lighten bolt shapes appear at the ends of the striped sleeves where hands would be expected. The figure overlays a sandy brown geometric hourglass shape with triangle and diamond decoration in two shades of purple. It is bordered with a pale rusty red background. The artist’s signature appears at lower right.]
The Legacy of Oscar Howe
Alongside the extraordinary volume of paintings in public and private collections that remain, Howe’s legacy is also found in the generations of Native artists who have followed his lead, embracing their heritage while creating work that is diverse, expressive, and culturally sophisticated. From artists who studied under Howe’s instruction during his lifetime, and the many artists who came to know him through his paintings and his passionate defense of his rights as a Native artist to blaze his own artistic path, he continues to be relevant. Howe’s statement that “Indian Art can compete with any art in the world” is evidenced today in the work of Native artists who are part of the continuum of Native American abstraction.
“Divide and fill the space he said.”
The problem is space
he said.
I have studied space.
How do you study space?
You take a piece of paper.
You study the paper.
The paper is space.
What he was saying
is that the space itself
is the important part of the painting.
The actual drawing and coloring
divides and fills the space.
Almost as in a religious ceremony.
This is the Howe method
of teaching.
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, 1980
Courting, 1970
Casein on paper
University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.26.4
While this riot of fractured red and yellow planes may appear as pure abstraction, the title is actually descriptive: in northern Plains courting traditions, young men were allowed to visit with an eligible woman while standing underneath a blanket for privacy.
[Artwork Description: Vertical abstract painting composed of flat planes of angular shapes arranged in deep reds at center turning to shades of brown and finally lightening to shades of golden wheat at the outer edges. A rough sphere comprised of irregular shapes in a variety of deep reds is positioned at upper center. A spiky multi limbed branch-like form arcs it ways across the red shapes. Surrounding the sphere, the shapes turn to shades of brown, first deep then lighter hues. Finally, the shapes lighten to golden shades of wheat colors. The artist’s signature appears at lower right.]
Oscar Howe’s life story—his journey from an impoverished childhood on the Crow Creek Reservation to an accomplished career as an artist and university professor—was a source of fascination for the public, especially South Dakotans, throughout his lifetime.
In many ways, his life was not unlike many mid-century American artists. Like scores of others of his generation who participated in the New Deal’s Work Projects Administration, Howe benefited from training opportunities and participation in public art projects. In addition to his studies in federally run Indian schools, he earned degrees in art from Dakota Wesleyan University and the University of Oklahoma. After serving in World War II, he pursued his career as an artist and university professor with vigor, eventually achieving the American middle-class ideal of owning a house in a suburban neighborhood, where he and his German war bride, Adelheid (Heidi), raised their daughter, Inge Dawn. Howe achieved lasting local and regional acclaim as a favorite son of South Dakota. He was recognized as the state’s artist laureate and served as the University of South Dakota’s artist in residence. In part, his celebrity status resulted from the visibility of his annual designs for the large murals that enveloped the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota. He met celebrities such as Vincent Price, who arranged his appearance on the popular television program This Is Your Life. His social circles also intersected with national politics; his family was close friends with Senator George McGovern’s extended family in Mitchell, and he was an advisor to the federal American Indian Arts and Crafts Board.
Process
Howe’s painstaking process, honed during his long career, involved transferring his carefully planned pencil design drawings onto prepared watercolor paper using tracing paper. He chose colors from historic Lakota and Dakota paintings on hide and parfleche (painted rawhide containers). These were applied within each section of the drawing as flat colors, to further emulate the traditional technique.
Howe saved his original drawings on tracing paper, including the initial designs for Corn Palace maquettes and many of his paintings. The precision and planning evident in his drawing of a spider web pattern, used as a background in several paintings, demonstrates his deliberate approach.
Oscar Howe in his studio at the W. H. Over Museum, University of South Dakota, ca. 1968.
Series 4, RA20300, Oscar Howe papers, Richardson Collection, Archives and Special Collections, University Libraries, University of South Dakota
[Artwork Description: Large black and white photo of Howe wearing a short sleeve white shirt with a collar and a pen in the pocket, dark metal glasses, with his black hair slicked back sits painting at a table. Another table with supplies and a row of easels are seen in the background. The painting is a series of geometric shapes all forming a large oval.]
Drawing for White Buffalo Skin Dancer, ca. 1960 Graphite on tracing paper, 29 x 20.75 in.
University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota
[Artwork Description: The pencil sketch has been enlarged and fills the wall floor to ceiling. The loosely sketched lines form a human figure, head turned to the left, wearing a furry buffalo hat with horns. The figure’s chest is muscular and defined by multiple geometric shapes. Swirling lines fill the space around the figure.]
Cultural integrity was the foundation of Howe’s practice as an artist. He carefully planned every detail of his paintings, based on years of meticulous research. Pages from his notebooks record sources that ranged from historical and anthropological publications to conversations with cultural experts. The margins of later paintings also reveal his attention to planning his color palette and using his thumbprint as a stamp of authenticity.
Eagle Dancer, 1972 (margin detail).
[Artwork Description: A small landscape-oriented painting in a rectangle shape. The background is comprised of purple, blue, and black geometric shapes that fill the space. On top of it is a figure that has a a rectangle shaped body that extends past the top border, two thin triangles, one on each side resembling arms, and two thin tall white triangles at the bottom resembling feet. To the right of the feet is purple writing reading 2 72 Oscar Howe. To the right of the painting is a vertical oval where Howe tested paint. Light pencil writing on the bottom of the page reads Eagle Dancer (abst.) 2.72.]
Dance of Heyoka (Part 1), n.d. (margin detail). University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota
[Artwork Description: A landscape-oriented painting that is a long rectangle. It has a light purple background filling much of the space. At the top left a large gray square extends beyond the edges of the painting. A second smaller gray diamond sits to the right of the square and connects to a small gray triangle that extends past the top right corner. On top of them are smaller geometric figures, mostly various triangles, in peach, rose, and burgundy. Three triangles also have black stripes. At the bottom is a row of eleven color squares with corresponding numbers: gray 253, purple 251, black 230, burgundy 240, brown 155, brown 261, rose 263, burgundy 241, dark rose 243, greenish brown 221, and greenish tan 223. A key on the lower right hand corner reads 3/8”=1’.]
Pages from notebooks, n.d.
Oscar Howe papers, Richardson Collection, Archives and Special Collections, University Libraries, University of South Dakota
[Artwork Description: Note paper with six holes on the left and blue lines. All notes are in red ink, most in cursive. The top reads Color for the 4 directions. Below is a diagram with a vertical line that says Yellow underlined with North under the line. At the bottom it says South with the word White underlined. On the left the words West with Black underlined and on the right East with the word Red underlined. Below it says according to medicine man, Fool’s Crow. 1972. Below this it says He made a sketch accordingly and to prediction of hard times, 45 years from 1972 which would be in 1987. Prepare for same by raising crops (additional words are not distinguishable), etc.]
[Artwork Description: Tan colored paper with six holes on the left side. Notes are written in blue ink with a sketch at the bottom left. Lists are grouped with titles on the left.
Santee
“Dakota”
- Mdewakanton
- Wahpeton
- Wahpekute
- Sisseton
Wicíyela
“Nakota”
- Yankton
- Yanktonai Pabaksa – Hohe
Teton
“Lakota”
- Teton
- Oglala
- Minneconjou
- Oohenompa (2 Kettles)
- Sicanqu (Brule)
- Itazipocon sans-Ares.
- Sihasapa.
- Hunkapa.
CantéTínzA Ta-Wapaha
To the left is a pen sketch of a round hat with horns extending on either side with three feather like shapes below them. The headdress extends from the back of the hat and cascades down. There are three parts, the bottom strip is thick and has dots down the middle, the second is thinner and plain, and the third appears to be feathers and is shaded in blue ink.]
Untitled (spider web pattern), n.d
University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota
[Artwork Description: Pencil sketch of a nine-point star in the center. Each point has a series of fine lines extending out from them with small numbers on each end indicating the planned paint color. Each space around the edge of the page is also numbered. The edges of the paper is wrinkled and has areas of discoloration in an orange tint.]
Drawing for Dakota Duck Hunt, 1947. Graphite on tracing paper. Dimensions variable.
University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota
[Artwork Description: Landscape-oriented pencil sketch on tan paper. The scene depicts two hunters hiding behind a row of reeds while ducks fly into the reeds and others fill the sky in the distance in two upside down V patterns. The ducks in the center form an upside-down V with an additional duck in the middle, all flying to the left. Two single ducks fly under them to the right and left, just above the reeds. In the center one appears to fall after being shot. The two hunters wear pants with feathers and reed like strands hanging from the waist and thighs and a sash over the shoulder. They both have long hair, parted in the middle and braided. They hold bows in one hand and shade their eyes with the other. Between them is a large oval leaf laying upside down on the ground and hanging over the edge of the bluff which has some erosion along the edge.]
Public Works
Early in his career, Oscar Howe took several opportunities to participate in public art projects. In 1940, after receiving mural-painting training alongside other Native artists participating in the Work Projects Administration (WPA) programs, Howe was commissioned to design and paint a mural in the dome of the Carnegie Library in Mitchell, South Dakota.
Following that success, Howe was offered another WPA commission in 1942 to create a series of ten murals depicting South Dakota history in the Mobridge Auditorium in Mobridge, South Dakota. A series of narrative vignettes featuring Native and non-Native experiences, the five panels on the south wall represent “Ceremonies of the Sioux,” while those on the north wall illustrate “History along the Missouri.”
Howe began his most enduring public art project in 1948 as the designer of the Corn Palace murals in Mitchell, South Dakota. “I have waited so long for this job, now I shall have my big chance,” Howe wrote at the time. Though he said it was not “looked upon as an art achievement,” the visibility of this local attraction was meaningful to Howe; he had longed for it for at least a decade. The temporary murals, constructed with three colors of corn, became a platform for Howe to reach an audience of everyday people from many walks of life. His depictions of the annual themes had wide popular appeal but also emphasized the shared values and connections between the Native and non-Native peoples of South Dakota. He designed the murals until 1971.
Carnegie Library
Sun and Rain Clouds over the Hills, 1940
Painted design for mural, Carnegie Resource Center
Tempera on paper
Oscar Howe Family Collection, University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota, L2022.25.12
Sun and Rain Clouds over the Hills is an elegant composition with clear stylistic roots in his recent New Mexico arts training, including iconography rooted in Pueblo pottery designs. The masterful translation of a two-dimensional painting onto a convex surface was an early indication of his skills working in multiple dimensions on a flat surface.
[Artwork Description: A square painting of flat, stylized, repeating symbols arranged within a circle on an off-white ground. The circle that contains the symbols is a yellow beige bordered on each edge with a thin sliver of brown. Within the circle the designs are positioned like a clock. At noon, three, six and nine o’clock there are a combination of symbols that make up a single motif. At top is a long thin gray rectangle with ends that point up and end in a single spike each. Below that is a stepped motif in black and gold that graduates downward. Below are three blue overlapping hill shapes flanked by jagged lightening bolt shapes that angle out and up toward the stepped motif. Below the hills shapes more stylized lines in gold and red radiate towards the center. At two, four, seven and ten o’clock flat are abstract representations of birds with fanned tails and wings spread. The birds have rusty red bodies, yellow and black wings and black tails and claws. In the center of the circle is the black outline of another circle that is rimmed in gold. Ochre colored ribbon-like bands radiate outward at two, four, seven and ten o’clock. Between the ribbons are red motifs that resemble elongated crowns with many peaks. The artist’s signature appears at lower right.]
Mobridge Murals
The narrative suite of ten murals completed by Howe in 1942 for the Mobridge Auditorium follow two themes: “History along the Missouri” and “Ceremonies of the Sioux.” Pictured here is the south wall, depicting “Ceremonies of the Sioux.” Details of three vignettes are titled Hunka Ado-Wampi, Christian Services, and Fool Soldier Rescue.
Courtesy Nicholas Ward
Artwork Description:
Overview Photo: Color photograph of mural in the gym. The mural fills the distant wall across the top with a solid sand color making up the bottom half of the wall. The wood floor is filled with basketball court markings, the word Tigers to the right, and a large white and black tiger mascot painted on the floor. Bleachers are folded up on the right and a basketball hoop hangs from the ceiling.
Panel 1: Close-up photo of the left side of the mural. The first panel shows a figure wearing a hide dress and standing on a white blanket. Behind the figure is a large teepee. A blanket hangs on a line to the right and another structure appears in the distance. The background is lined with thick trees and a lightly clouded blue sky.
Separation Strip 1: A thin vertical panel separates the panels with three dark diamonds that are outlined in a light brown. Tiny diamonds surround the larger ones.
Panel 2: Sun Dance: The second panel shows four young Indian men who are bare-chested. They have long black hair and are holding sticks with white ends. Two wear burgundy coverings and two wear blue coverings around their waist. They stand facing the viewer behind a tall white pole that has a large black bird with wings outstretched on the top and four thick bands of dark blue on the bottom. Two animal skulls with horns lay on the ground in front of the pole. Behind the man on the left are three dark black mounds. Behind other figures that are barely visible look on. The background is lined with thick trees and a lightly clouded blue sky.
Separation Strip 2: The thin strip separating it from the second mural has a repeated design consisting of two dark purple vertical rectangles connected with a red line. Light green thin lines extend vertically from them and curve slightly at the ends. Light green arrows appear on both sides pointing towards the rectangles. Three angled burgundy triangles in a vertical line extend on all four corners of the pattern. Above the rectangles the next design shows light green arrows, the top arrow points up, side arrows point in, and bottom points down. The patterns are repeated three times.
Panel 3: The third panel of the mural depicts six figures in front of a teepee with two horses standing along the sides. The teepee is in the center of the background and a figure in a white dress with long black hair sits in front of it. To the left a figure wearing a long black and white headdress stands holding a pole. Across from him two figures, one shirtless and one wearing black kneel on the ground. Behind them a black horse with white legs and a white spot on its nose stands next to the teepee. In the foreground are three black mounds, similar to those shown in the first panel. To their left is a large rectangle banner that appears to be made of hide. It has a purple box in the center with writing that is not legible and is bordered by a jagged dark line. To the left is a box or square basket with a diamond design on the side and spikes or rods sticking out the right end. Behind it a figure with long black hair wearing a blue dress squats talking with another figure wearing a hide dress and sitting on the ground. Behind them a tall brown horse with a white nose stands in front of the thick line of trees. A small portion of blue sky with a thin layer of white clouds can be seen on the horizon.
Separation Strip 3: The thin column between the panels has a design that is repeated twice. At the top is a light green upside-down triangle that has three smaller triangles on either side. Below this is a row of five burgundy circles. Below this is a diamond shaped pattern that has jagged black strips that fade into a lighter brown corner that form the four sides of the diamond. In the center is a light green oval that has blurred edges. Two burgundy arrows point towards it – one above and one below. A series of small burgundy triangles form a circle around the other shapes. Two light green diamonds appear, one over the top burgundy arrow and one below the bottom arrow.
Panel 4: Victory Dance: This painting depicts multiple Indians in performing a ceremonial dance. At the center of the foreground is an arrangement of blankets, axes, pottery, and decorated bags and baskets. The box on the left sits on top of a brown blanket and has a sideways yellow diamond in the middle outlined in burgundy with the lines extending to the edge of the box. Two blue ovals extend from the edge in all four quadrants. To the right is a large tan object appearing to be a box or bag made of hide. It has a large strip in the middle that is a darker tan color with a brown rectangle on bottom, followed by a strip with a red diamond in the middle and two black moon shapes facing away from the diamond, a large gray triangle rests on top of the diamond, the triangle is topped with a blue geometric pattern with a flat top, this pattern is repeated in red and blue at the top. A blue ribbon outlined with burgundy runs over the top of the box or basket and cascades down the side to the left of the main decorative strip. To the right three dancers face away from the viewer. They are bare-chested and wear long colored breech cloths – two wear red, one yellow, and four blue. They wear three rows of white and black feathers over the back of the breech cloths. They wear round medallions on the small of their backs – some yellow and some blue. They wear a single feather at the top of their head with a fur triangle under it. They all wear moccasins with red bands at the bottom and a row of shells or bells at the ankle. A row of shells or bells extends from the medallion on their backs cascading against both legs. The three dancers on the right extend their left arms outward, palm up, wearing white bracelets. There are three large, shallow black pots on the ground to the right. At the center of the background a dancer wearing a blue breech cloth and a chest plate with bones and beads faces the viewer and appears to be in mid-jump. In front of him is a tan hide with a large black kettle in the middle. His hands are held in front of his body, palms up. On the left are three more dancers. The one in the foreground kneels on his left knee. He holds his elbows at his side with his hands outstretched. He holds feathers in his right hand and his left palm is open. He has long black hair parted in the middle and wears a yellow board with a feather at the back of his head. He wears a hide chest plate that is brown with a blue strip on the bottom and two white circles in the middle. Behind him a dancer stands, both hands raised in the air. He wears a blue breechcloth, a bone, feather, and bead breastplate, feathers from the medallion on his back, a feather on his head, and shells or bells at his legs. He has two red stripes of paint on both cheeks. The last dancer kneels behind on his right knee wearing a red breech cloth. He holds feathers in his left hand and his right hand is extended, but hidden behind the dancer in front of him. He has a single feather on his head and a white sash around his waist. He also has the shells or bells hanging down both legs. A series of pine trees line the background. Four feather items hang from the trees. On the left, a yellow circle with a red center and black spokes that is surrounded by white and black feathers with two rows of additional feathers hanging below. Next, a blue background with eight white and black feathers on the top with a dark orange strip through the middle and thin spiky black feathers at the end of the orange strip. A single thin curved feather extends upwards and out next to the edge feathers on the top. Below are two yellow strips with three feathers hanging below each. Finally, on the right is a tan circle with an orange center and black spikes in the middle with yellow spokes with black stripes that resemble the sun. Three layers of four white and black feathers hang from the bottom. A small portion of blue sky with thin white clouds can be seen on the horizon.
Separation Strip 4: The thin column between the panels has a design that starts in the center and repeats. The center has a burgundy square inside a burgundy diamond. Two arrows formed of seven burgundy arrows point toward the middle diamond. A series of light brown or yellow triangles form the shape of an M between the diamond and the arrow.
Panel 5: Henkapi Ceremony: Fourteen Indians gather around a teepee with a platform in front of it for a Henkapi Ceremony. The teepee is in the center of the background and has decorative markings that are barely visible – a circle with a series of two slashes extending from it on the left and the horn and nose of an animal on the right. Eight poles extend out the top, the middle one with a black flag. The teepee is propped open at the top and seven stitches are visible on both sides of the door flap. In front of the teepee are two branches. An Indian wearing a long sleeve hide shirt with a blue, burgundy, and orange pattern on the shoulders and neckline looks slightly upward, mouth open, with red paint on the cheeks. A platform sits on top of eleven visible logs that are a purple brown color. On it lays a large hide drum with two drummers sitting on the side. They play with their right arm extended holding a mallet comprised of a white stick and soft end. The drummer on the left is wearing a buff colored short sleeve dress with a rust colored shawl, parted black hair draping over the shoulder with a white and black feather dangling from the part. The second drummer is shirtless and wears a blue shawl. His left arm is bent at the elbow and is covering his ear. A circle of onlookers surrounds them. In the center of the foreground a woman wearing a long flowing buff colored dress with a tie at the waist sits, back to the viewer, watching the ceremony. Her long black hair is parted in the middle and braided. She sits next to a large black pot, a brown burlap sack, a large white box with a blue cover, and a smaller white box with a red cover. To her right is a row of four Indian women. They all wear buff colored long dresses, shawls, moccasins with red embellishments along the sole, and have long black hair, parted in the center, the fourth has braids and barrettes. The first holds an item over her right shoulder and wears a purple shawl with a burgundy border. The second holds an item in her outstretched left hand. The third wears a light blue shawl with orange embellishments and a thick blue trim. She stands, arms at her side, looking forward. Behind the right side of the teepee a man stands looking straight ahead, bare-chested, wearing a rust color covering on his left shoulder that drapes across his body. His long black hair is parted in the middle and braided with rust ribbon. To the left of the teepee another man stands wearing a long blue robe and buff colored pants. He looks straight ahead and his long black hair is parted in the middle. He wears a yellow cord around his neck that has dark items at the ends which hang near his waistline. In front of him is a line of four males. They all stand looking onto the ceremony and are wearing feathered headdresses with white feathers with black tips and white, orange, burgundy, and blue strips near the forehead. They all wear long sleeve buff colored shirts that come to a point on the sides with a geometric line down the sleeves. The first and third wear buff colored pants and the second and fourth wear blue pants with a braided white embellishment running down the outside of the leg. The first three wear buff colored moccasins with red embellishments and the fourth wears white covers over his moccasins with a yellow line along the soles. The first and fourth men hold a group of white and black feathers. A thick row of pine trees stands behind the ceremony with a small patch of blue sky with a light layer of white and peach clouds is visible on the horizon.
Separation Strip 5: Three burgundy circles appear in a horizontal line with green diamonds above and below the center circle. Isosceles triangles flank the diamonds. Four small burgundy diamonds line each edge. The pattern is repeated in lighter colors below. A similar, but slightly different pattern runs along the top of the bleachers on the right.
Three prints of Howe murals are shown to the left of the large print of the gymnasium mural.
1. Courtship and Marriage: A large mural depicting eleven Indians participating in a prayer service with a priest and two individuals on a platform in the middle of a grassy field surrounded by teepees and grazing brown horses with trees and brown hills in the background under a bright blue sky with gentle white clouds. The middle cloud is filled with gray with a bright white outline and sunbeams radiating out from behind it. The priest has short brown hair and wears a long black robe. He stands behind a podium and holds a white cross in his right hand while his left hand is outstretched touching the head of the woman kneeling on the stage. She has long black hair and is wearing a white long sleeve dress with a yellow sash around the waist. To the priest’s right a man kneels. He is bare-chested and has long black hair. His arms rest crossed on his chest and he wears tan pants with a gray breech cloth. Two figures stand facing the podium right at the edge. They both have long black hair, parted in the middle and braided. They wear long sleep tan shirts and pants and the one on the right wears a rust color robe over the left shoulder. The others kneel behind them. Descriptions left to right. The first worshiper is a man sitting on a rock with long black hair parted in the middle and braided. He is bare-chested and wears a tan breech cloth, pants, and moccasins. To the right is another man with long black hair parted in the middle. He is also bare-chested and wears a large blue robe and white knee-high moccasins. In front of him is a woman with long black hair wearing a tan dress with two orange stripes on the chest and a large blue robe over her left shoulder. Next to her is a man with long black hair parted in the middle with feathers hanging from the back. He is bare-chested and wears a long tan breech cloth and knee-high tan moccasins. A rust colored robe wraps around his waist and flows over his legs. Behind him is a smaller woman with long black hair parted in the middle and braided with rust color fabric around the braids. Her dress is cinched at the waist with black embroidery. Additional black marks appear on the sleeves and mid-way down the skirt. Her dirty moccasins are crossed behind her. In front of her a worshiper wearing a long tan robe with a diagonal orange stripe with blue hashes on it and tan moccasins. Behind is a bare-chested worshiper with long black hair parted in the middle wearing a long blue robe and knee-high tan moccasins. To the right is a woman with long black hair hearing a long sleeve tan dress with a blue robe draped over her lap. Behind her a bare-chested man with long black hair parted in the middle sits wearing tan pants and a blue breech cloth. To his left four small green oval shape cactus plants peek out of the sand with pink flowers on top.
2. Christian Prayer Service: A large mural depicting eleven Indians participating in a prayer service with a priest and two individuals on a platform in the middle of a grassy field surrounded by teepees and grazing brown horses with trees and brown hills in the background under a bright blue sky with gentle white clouds. The middle cloud is filled with gray with a bright white outline and sunbeams radiating out from behind it. The priest has short brown hair and wears a long black robe. He stands behind a podium and holds a white cross in his right hand while his left hand is outstretched touching the head of the woman kneeling on the stage. She has long black hair and is wearing a white long sleeve dress with a yellow sash around the waist. To the priest’s right a man kneels. He is bare-chested and has long black hair. His arms rest crossed on his chest and he wears tan pants with a gray breech cloth. Two figures stand facing the podium right at the edge. They both have long black hair, parted in the middle and braided. They wear long sleep tan shirts and pants and the one on the right wears a rust color robe over the left shoulder. The others kneel behind them. Descriptions left to right. The first worshiper is a man sitting on a rock with long black hair parted in the middle and braided. He is bare-chested and wears a tan breech cloth, pants, and moccasins. To the right is another man with long black hair parted in the middle. He is also bare-chested and wears a large blue robe and white knee-high moccasins. In front of him is a woman with long black hair wearing a tan dress with two orange stripes on the chest and a large blue robe over her left shoulder. Next to her is a man with long black hair parted in the middle with feathers hanging from the back. He is bare-chested and wears a long tan breech cloth and knee-high tan moccasins. A rust colored robe wraps around his waist and flows over his legs. Behind him is a smaller woman with long black hair parted in the middle and braided with rust color fabric around the braids. Her dress is cinched at the waist with black embroidery. Additional black marks appear on the sleeves and mid-way down the skirt. Her dirty moccasins are crossed behind her. In front of her a worshiper wearing a long tan robe with a diagonal orange stripe with blue hashes on it and tan moccasins. Behind is a bare-chested worshiper with long black hair parted in the middle wearing a long blue robe and knee-high tan moccasins. To the right is a woman with long black hair hearing a long sleeve tan dress with a blue robe draped over her lap. Behind her a bare-chested man with long black hair parted in the middle sits wearing tan pants and a blue breech cloth. To his left four small green oval shape cactus plants peek out of the sand with pink flowers on top.
3. Fool Soldier Rescue: Large mural depicting people in a horse drawn wagon with two women leading and others looking on. They travel towards the left on a green grassy bank next to a stream. Green bushes line the opposite bank and brown hills extended above them meeting a light blue sky filled with clouds. A large dark cloud wall looms over the whole painting. The white horse with a blonde mane and tale lifts its left leg while walking. A woman with light skin and brown hair wearing a brown dress and a rust color sash connected at the waist rides the horse. She holds the reins in her right hand and rests her left hand on the horses back. She looks towards the water. Behind her a light-skinned woman with blonde hair wears a blue dress with white edges. She holds a rope that is connected to the wagon in her left hand and seems to pull it along. Four light-skinned people sit in the wagon. They all have brown hair and two wear brown shirts and one a dark blue shirt. Two Indian men walk along with the wagon. They are both bare-chested, have long black hair parted in the middle, and wear tan pants and moccasins. The first wears a brown breech cloth and the second a bright blue one. They appear to be pushing the wagon. Behind them a tall figure wearing a long sleeve tan shirt and pants with long black hair stands facing away from the wagon holding a dark stick like object. A few feet away three figures look on. The first is bare-chested and has long black hair parted in the middle. He wears a burgundy robe that is draped over his right shoulder. He wears tan pants and moccasins and is leaning back on his left hand. To his left a woman with long dark hair parted in the middle kneels wearing a tan long sleeve dress and tan moccasins. In front of her a tall individual with long black hair parted in the middle stands with left arm extended into the air as if to point in a direction wearing a burgundy shirt and tan pants with blue trim.
The Corn Palace
Untitled (Three male dancers; barn dance)
Painted design maquettes for the 1954 Corn Palace murals
Tempera on paper, mounted on cardboard University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota
Background photo:
Photo by Dorothy Prather; Pub. By Dan Grigg Enterprise Co., Mitchell, SD; Dexter Press Inc. West Nyack, NY; WOCP 1962, 65576-B
[Artwork Description for Three Male Dancers: A horizontal design for a mural featuring three dancers and onlookers rendered in shades of red on a golden yellow background. The long rectangular design is edged by a border in deep brown. There are three sets of figures: those in the foreground, those in the middle ground and those in the background. They are spaced across the work, so they are pictured individually with no overlaps. The three figures in the foreground are three male dancers, all in different poses. The central figure is the largest. He is shown in profile with arms swinging out in front and behind, knees bent and long breech cloth fluttering. He has his head back and wears armbands, a circular bustle with feathers place low on the back and moccasins. The figures to the right and left are similarly dressed. At left, the figure dances with his back partially turned and raises a long stick or pipe. At right, the figure dances facing the viewer and head turned right while holding a long stick or pipe. The middle ground holds two sets of figures that are half the size of the main dancers. At left, a pair of figures stand before a drum stand wearing long tunics and braids. At right, three female figures stand shoulder to shoulder wearing long tunics and moccasins. In the background, are four seated figures that are positioned at the lower edge of the painting. They are about a fifth of the size of the three male dancers. All the figures, are depicted in three or four shades of red. A linear graph is lightly penciled in under the design. The dancer at left has been labeled to denote each color used to achieve detail and shadow on the figures.]
[Artwork Description for Barn Dance: A horizontal design for a mural featuring seven sets of dancers rendered in shades of red on a golden yellow background. The long rectangular design is edged by a border in deep brown. There are three sets of figures: one in the foreground, two in the middle ground and four in the background. They are spaced across the work so there are no overlaps. The central dancing couple stands almost as tall as the height of the painting. The figures lock arms as they dance. The female figure is at left wearing a light top and long dark red skirt with dark hair pulled back in a low bun. She holds her chin high, and a hand is on her waist. The male figure is at left wearing a shirt sleeved shirt and pants. His back is turned, his head bowed, and he holds an arm out bent at the elbow. Two similar pairs of dancers at positioned at left and right. They are about two thirds the size of the couple in the foreground. They lock arms while swinging their arms and one female figure hitches up her skirt. The four couples in the background are positioned at the bottom of the work and are about a fifth of the size of the central couple. They appear to dance, twirl and step in time to music wearing similar outfits as the others. A grid is lightly penciled in under the painting and each of the main figures have been labeled to denote which shade of red is to be used to show shadow and detail.]
Untitled (Kneeling minister; man with briefcase)
Painted design maquettes for the 1954 Corn Palace murals
Tempera on paper, mounted on cardboard University Art Galleries, University of South Dakota
The 1954 theme, “Agricultural, Business, Religious, and Social Phases of Life in South Dakota,” featured diverse representations of professions and life in the modern Midwest.
[Artwork Description for Kneeling Minister: A vertical painted design for a mural featuring a kneeling figure rendered in shades of reds against a yellow ground. The top of the work is rounded off and partially unfinished. The mural design below it is rectangular. At center, a male figure kneels and looks up while holding a book shaped object. The cloaked figure is beneath a cone of white that mimics a ray of light from above. A narrow, tall, pointed column suggesting a stained-glass window is at right above a cross on a slender altar table. At left, graduated strips of color suggest a pipe organ and other geometric shapes resemble pews. The minister and the church components are all depicted using shades of red from very pale peach to deep rusty red. The background of the space is a goldenrod yellow. The figure and objects are fragmented into shapes that convey the folds of a cloak, facial expressions and architecture of the church interior. Penciled notes and a grid appear on the work.]
[Artwork Description for Man with Briefcase: A vertical painted design for a mural featuring a man dressed in a suit and tie striding between tall buildings in shades of red on a largely yellow ground. The top of the work is rounded off and partially unfinished. The mural design below is rectangular. In the center, a man in a suit, tie, fedora hat and gloves is captured mid stride holding a briefcase. His right arm is crossed in front of his body as he walks. He is flanked by tall flat buildings with dark windows. A starburst pattern appears behind the figure in white, goldenrod yellow and rust red. He walks on a ground composed of stripes of reds going from very dark to midtones. Penciled notes and a grid appear on the work.]
Oscar Howe demonstrating how he enlarges a scale drawing to full-size pattern for a Corn Palace mural panel, ca. 1958.
The Corn Palace murals, 1954.
Oscar Howe papers, Richardson Collection, Archives and Special Collections, University Libraries, University of South Dakota
[Artwork Description: The black and white photo on the left shows Howe standing in front of a black wall with a white grid drawing with what appears to be white chalk. He stands with his left arm against the wall, body facing to the right, right arm reaching across his body to draw, and head turned to look at the camera. His hair is a bit longer than in other portraits in the exhibition, parted on the right side. He wears thick black glasses, a white collared short sleeve shirt, tan pants, and a dark belt. In his left hand he holds a long sheet of paper with two mural designs. He draws a human figure that is large and angular wearing a hat with a wide brim and bending over while moving.
The black and white photo on the right shows the front two walls of the Corn Palace as viewed from the corner across the street. The building is ornate with lots of visual details. The bottom layer appears to be constructed of large stone bricks with a design of white sideways diamonds with smaller dots between them repeating between two thin white lines. The white borders each doorframe and some of the windows. Three sets of double doors that are glass are spaced along the front of the building. Above them is a large awning which is brown with a large white strip in the middle. Large capital letters on the awning just above the doors read Lawrence Welk Show. Above this are three individual murals that are vertical and have individual rounded awnings that are made of shiny dark tiles with white lines between them. In this view it is difficult to make out the details of the murals, but most appear to have couples dancing. Above these three murals is a large strip that reads Mitchell in capital letters with white strips with black lines in the center on each side and a large black strip above. To each side are white columns that extend past the roofline and have a series of thin oval openings at the top with a roof that comes to a point with a spire on top holding a flag pole. The roof is dark and has tiles arranged in winding vertical stripes. At the bottom are funnel shaped pieces that have the same texture appearance as stucco. Beyond the left column a mural depicting figures dancing – facing towards the center of the building extends to the edge. A black awning hangs over it. Beyond the right column is a similar mural with three couples dancing, the men wear dark pants and the women long skirts. Their bodies are angular and show movement. The corner of the building has ornate decorations that are difficult to make out, but appear to be a series of horizontal pipes that connect together. Visually, it appears as there are light colored vertical stripes with dark ones in between. This same material forms upside down bell shapes under the mural on the right side of the building which is difficult to depict but seems to show a figure on horseback in the background and a tall figure in the center. It has the same dark awning as the other murals. Additional murals extend to the end of the wall, but are too blurry to distinguish in this photograph. The roof of the building has a series of onion domes, four are visible in this photograph. These large, round domes with spires and flag poles extending from the top are elaborately decorated in thick dark jagged lines outlined in thinner white lines with tan between them. The one over the front of the building has slightly thinner and less jagged lines. It holds an American flag. The other flags are not distinguishable. Behind the center onion dome is an angular white structure with a dark outline. A layer of white clouds fills the sky.]
Oscar and Heidi Howe with daughter, Inge Dawn, 1948.
Oscar Howe papers, Richardson Collection, Archives and Special Collections, University Libraries, University of South Dakota
[Artwork Description: A vertical portrait of Howe sitting in a tan chair with green and burgundy flowers and dark wood edging. He wears a light blue suit, a white collared shirt, and a purple tie. His short dark hair is neatly trimmed and he wears wire framed glasses. He holds his daughter Inge Dawn on his left arm and rests his right elbow on the chair. Inge Dawn has dark hair and is wearing a white dress with puffed cap sleeves. Howe’s wife Heidi sits on the floor in front of them, knees bent to her side, with long wavy brown hair with the bangs pulled up. She wears a light pink dress that has gathered short sleeves and a billowed top that is covered by a thick band around the waist. She wears a black embellishment on her left shoulder that is trimmed in bright pink and a gold bracelet. They pose in front of a landscape painting with a light blue sky, fluffy clouds, and dark green shrubs that surround a blue pond. The painting is framed in thick, flat, dark wood. A portion of rug shows in the left corner with a blue and burgundy flower motif.]
Oscar and Heidi Howe outside their home, Vermillion, South Dakota, 1965.
Oscar Howe papers, Richardson Collection, Archives and Special Collections, University Libraries, University of South Dakota
[Artwork Description: Howe and Heidi stand on the porch of their home. It is a one-story white home with a greenish roof and white gutters. A neatly manicured lawn is in front with dark green grass. Small shrubs line the bottom of the house. A large picture window fills most of the wall to the right and a small window can be seen in the corner of the left side. Bright blue sky with white fluffy clouds fill the top of the photo.]
Inge Dawn, Oscar, and Heidi Howe, Vermillion, South Dakota, 1958.
Oscar Howe papers, Richardson Collection, Archives and Special Collections, University Libraries, University of South Dakota
[Artwork Description: Square photograph of Inge Dawn, Oscar, and Heidi sitting in a home with one of Howe’s paintings hanging above the chair. Oscar sits in the chair wearing a light gray suit, a blue collared shirt, white socks, and brown lace up shoes. His arms are loosely crossed on his legs and he wears a brown watch on his left wrist. He has dark sleek black hair, parted on the right side and wears round wire frame glasses. His wife Heidi sits on the left armrest behind him wearing a long sleeve white collared blouse, a long blue skirt with white and brown stripes, and brown slip on shoes. She has curly brown hair and is wearing dark red lipstick. Inge Dawn sits on the floor to the right of the chair. She is wearing a dress that is black on top with puffed cap sleeves and a white collar with three silver buttons and a white skirt with short black lines forming horizontal stripes. She has short wavy brown hair with bangs and is holding a small brown dachshund that is looking at the camera with floppy ears. The wall behind them is buff colored and the one to the right is white. A window with a white frame is visible to the right and a buff colored door can be seen on the left.]
Inge Dawn, Heidi, and Oscar Howe, with granddaughter Kimberly, Vermillion, South Dakota, 1975.
Courtesy of Inge Dawn Howe Maresh
[Artwork Description: Square photograph of Inge Dawn, Heidi, granddaughter Kimberly, and Howe standing in a grassy yard with spruce trees and a cloudy sky in the background. Inge Dawn stands with her hands at her sides wearing a black tank top and white pants. She has shoulder length black hair and has sunglasses on the top of her head. She looks directly at the camera smiling. Next, Heidi smiles while holding Kimberly. Heidi wears a brown and white striped short sleeve shirt and white pants. She has chin length gray hair. Kimberly wears a light-colored sleeveless onesie and white booties with ties. She has messy dark hair and chubby cheeks. Howe looks down on her with a smile. He wears a yellow collared shirt and brown and white checkered pants with a brown belt and watch. A single pen sticks out of his pocket and his gray and black hair is slicked back. He wears wire frame glasses.]
Oscar Howe (center) with honorary doctorate, Heidi (left) and Inge Dawn Howe (right), South Dakota State University, Brookings, South Dakota, 1968.
Courtesy of South Dakota State University Archives and Special Collections, Hilton M. Briggs Library
[Artwork Description: Landscape black and white photograph of Howe wearing a graduation gown and cap holding his honorary doctorate. His gown is black with dark black stripes on the sleeves and breast. He wears a dark suit with a white shirt and thin shiny dark tie underneath. A white sash surrounds his neck and flows down his back. He wears thick dark glasses and a black graduation gap with a white tassel. Heidi stands to the left wearing a sleek white dress with short sleeves. Her wavy hair is highlighted and pulled up in the back. She smiles at the photographer with dark lipstick. Inge Dawn stands to the right. She wears a dark flowing long-sleeve dress with a ruffled neckline and a tie at the waist. Her dark chin length hair is straightened and clips outward at the bottom. She has thick curled bangs. They stand in front of white curtains with a leaf motif at the top.]
Oscar Howe, US Army portrait, 1942–44.
Oscar Howe papers, Richardson Collection, Archives and Special Collections, University Libraries, University of South Dakota
[Artwork Description: Portrait photograph in sepia of Howe posing in his Army uniform. He sits turned slightly to the right. He looks directly at the camera with soft eyes and a smile. His wire frame glasses are barely visible. He wears a dark hat with a wide brim with a metal medallion at the top and a belt-like adornment below. It sits angled to the left on his head. He wears a white shirt and dark tie under his uniform jacket which has medallions on the collar, metal buttons on the shoulder and breast-pocket flaps, and patches on the left arm that include a double chevron pointing up and a white and brown patch partially visible above it. The buff background is about the same color as his skin and shirt. The whole photo seems to be slightly blurred as if looking through a thin layer of fog.]
Oscar Howe with students, Pierre High School Art Club, Pierre, South Dakota, 1956–57.
Beverly Bason, Mike Cocoran, Robert Fuller, Malinda Grimes, Oscar Howe, Sharon Killian, Karen Kjar, Janice Lemke, Dennis Lundin, Joanne Starzel, and K. Wester.
Oscar Howe papers, Richardson Collection, Archives and Special Collections, University Libraries, University of South Dakota
[Artwork Descriptions: A black and white landscape photo of Howe teaching a classroom of eleven art students. The classroom is comprised of a series of small tables with metal folding chairs. The first two tables on the left are empty and the first table on the right has supplies scattered across it including paper, paint, and a wire rectangular basket. The small desk behind it has two female students who wear light long-sleeved shirts and long flowing pleated dark colored skirts. They both have shoulder length hair, the first dark and curly and the second smooth and flipped up at the ends. They paint on a dark canvas laying on the table next to white rags. A single male student wearing a long-sleeve white shirt and dark pants with short dark hair paints on a small white canvas in the middle of the desk. To his left a group of three students work at the same table, all painting on small light-colored canvases. The first student has short dark hair and wears a light-colored long sleeve shirt and pants with a dark belt. The one in the middle has dark hair and wears a light-colored sweater. The third stands, leaning over the end of the table and wears a dark long sleeve shirt and has short dark hair. In front of them, Howe stands observing a group of three female students who share a table. The one on the left wears a striped sweater and has long dark hair in a pony tail with thick bangs. In the middle a girl with dark hair in a pony tail with bang on the left side of her forehead wears a dark colored long-sleeve shirt and glasses. The girl at the end has straight brown hair that is jaw length and a smooth white long sleeve shirt and dark pleated skirt. They all paint on small light-colored canvases. Beyond them two students sit at a small table. The girl wears a white short sleeve shirt and has chin-length dark hair. She holds a paintbrush over a canvas with a variety of images that are not distinguishable. To her left a boy with short dark brown hair wearing a dark long sleeve shirt with lighter spots and dark pants sits on a high chair, his black shoe dangling in the air. He watches his table partner work. Behind them a shelf of books reaches to the corner on the right and a shelf with a white bust is on the left in front of windows with white blinds and patterned curtains.]
Oscar Howe with students.
Left to right: Herman Red Elk, David Sebring, and Donald Montileaux during the summer Indian Art Institute held at the University of South Dakota, ca. 1965.
USD Photograph Collection, Archives and Special Collections, University Libraries, University of South Dakota
[Artwork Description: Black and white square photo of Howe standing with three of his art students in a classroom. Howe stands on the left side wearing a white short sleeve collared shirt, black pants, and thick black glasses. His dark hair is parted on the right side. He looks at the camera with a straight face and his arm hangs at his side. Herman Red Elk stands next to him. He appears much older than the other students and wears a light colored buttoned shirt with a collar and thick black glasses. He holds a painting of a human figure bent at the waist, left arm outstretched, as if falling through space surrounded by white feathers with black tips. David Sebring stands next to Red Elk wearing a white short-sleeve buttoned shirt with a collar. A single pen is clipped to his breast pocket. He has short spiked blond hair and holds a painting with a dark background and Indian figures with a spear with a large buffalo head between them. Donald Montileaux stands next to Sebring wearing dark pants and a short sleeve dark checkered buttoned shirt with a collar. He has dark hair combed forward. He holds a painting with a dark background depicting an Indian on horseback, arms raised in the air, with large white clouds and the sun in the background. A shelf hangs behind heir heads with a white stallion sculpture on the left and some rolled paper on the right. Other paintings hang from the edge of the shelf.]
Howe with students Michael Dirkes, Silke Hansen, and Hartmund Weck, University of South Dakota, 1975.
USD Photograph Collection, Archives and Special Collections, University Libraries, University of South Dakota
[Artwork Description: Square black and white photograph of Howe sitting in a wooden chair surrounded by a circle of students sitting on the floor. Howe wears a dark button up short sleeve shirt with a color, light pants, and black socks and shoes. The light reflects off his wire framed glasses. He has short dark hair. He sits with his legs crossed, leaning forward making eye contact with a student. The student sits on the floor with knees pulled to chest and hands clasped around his legs. He has ear length dark hair and glasses and is wearing a watch on his left hand. Behind him another student with shoulder length dark hair is leaning against the wall, knees at chest, wearing a short sleeve white shirt with a collar and a v-neck. Next another student with short black hair wearing a light shirt with a collar and light pants and shoes sits, knees to chest, hands clasped around legs, wearing a watch on his left wrist. Next to him just the head of another student with glasses and long black hair is visible beyond Howe’s knee. The walls and hallway are lined with large framed paintings that are not distinguishable.]
Oscar Howe, 1958.
Oscar Howe papers, Richardson Collection, Archives and Special Collections, University Libraries, University of South Dakota
[Artwork Description: Several newspaper articles featuring Howe and his work. Articles described left to right starting with headline for each article.
Painting By Oscar Howe At Smithsonian: Grandmother’s Finger Painting First Instruction of SD Artist. Black and white photo of Howe holding a child on his lap and looking at a painting on table.
Indian Artist Keeps Culture of Sioux Alive: How relates life, theories. Three small black and white photos. The first is a close up of Howe wearing a white shirt, black suit coat, and black tie. The second is a close up of one of his paintings that is difficult to distinguish. Below is a photo of Howe showing his work to another man with short brown hair and glasses wearing a black jacket.
Washington Post: Color photograph of Howe’s painting Origin of the Sioux – A vertical painting of a female figure with two infants depicted with a large bird with outstretched wings rising behind her. The figure takes up most of the length of this painting. She wears a long buff colored garment that has long fringe at the sleeves and hemline. She holds an infant in her arms and carries another on her back. The three each have dark brown skin and black hair. The adult figure wears red facial markings over the bridge of her nose, on her cheeks and forehead. She wears moccasins on her feet, and they appear to be pointing downward as if she is alighting on the small teal island set in a dark blue ground. She looks up and to the left as does the child carried on her back. Behind the trio, a large gray and white bird rises with wings spread wide. The wings fan outward, beginning as an off-white and finishing in separate gray and dark gray feathers. The bird’s off-white head and throat is pictured from as if from below, with is beak is slightly open. Above the beak is a small, round emblem almost the same deep burgundy as the background color. It’s encircled by two horns and flanked by two tassels and two smoke like shapes at center and top. A tree with jagged branches and spiky tufts for leaves appears behind the floating figure. The artist’s signature appears at lower right.
Oscar Howe: More than an “Indian”artist: large color photo of Howe wearing a black suit and tie with a white shirt sitting at a table sketching on a large white canvass. Four easels behind him display his paintings. The first is a human figure with a red shirt and blue skirt that appears to be floating into a large yellow circle. The rest are difficult to see, but are colorful and use a mix of geometric shapes. Next to this is a color photo of one of his paintings that shows a figure of an Indian in the center, knees bent and arms raised above the head. The figure is surrounded by multicolored geometric shapes including light blue, buff, red, brown, and dark blue.
Oscar Howe Paintings Shown in New York: The Palace That’s Painted With Corn. Leading Sioux Painter Conquered Adversity. Black and white photograph of Howe standing wearing a white long sleeve shirt, arms crossed, in front of the Corn Palace with scaffolding set up as the mural is made with corn kernels. It has multiple spires on top of the roof, one of which has a column decorated with white and black chevron stripes.
Howe’s Name Belongs On List Of Great Painters Of Indian Life: Howe’s Brush Translates Indian Legends Into Art. A small black and white headshot of Howe wearing a white shirt with a dark tie and suit coat and metal glasses.
The Grandson of “Don’t Know How” Has That Artistic Know-How. A small black and white headshot of Howe looking over his left shoulder at the camera. The top of his white color and black jacket are visible. He’s wearing wire framed glasses and has black hair parted on the right side.
Talent of Native S.D. Artist Was Evident at Early Age
Young Sioux Artist: Black and white photo of one of Howe’s murals on a rounded ceiling. Indian designs repeat throughout and two bird like figures appear in the foreground. Below is a picture of Howe painting another painting with a figure on a horse. Next to him is a headshot of a woman with long wavy brown hair wearing a light colored shirt.
Oscar Howe: The Sioux Painter: Large black and white photo of Howe wearing a short sleeve white shirt with a collar and a pen in the pocket, dark metal glasses, with his black hair slicked back sits painting at a table. Another table with supplies and a row of easels are seen in the background. The painting is a series of geometric shapes all forming a large oval.
His Paints May Save a Dying Past: Gilcrease Museum Unveils Display Salute to Oscar Howe: Yanktonai Sioux Artist Had No Early Vision of Honors That Would Come To Him. A black and white photo of one of Howe’s works that shows figures in dark with swirls of light colored strips resembling smoke covering them. To the right another photo of Howe’s To Flee a Massacre which depicts a female Indian on a white horse with blood dripping from them surrounded by circles of color with objects such as a stylized skull and American flag in the rings.
Indian Artist Hopes for Renaissance – Area Market Sought for Paintings. Square black and white photo of Howe sitting at a table painting while wearing a light colored short sleeve button up shirt with a collar. He has dark hair and is looking forward with his right arm resting on the canvas and his left hand in his lap. Canvases with other paintings are propped up on the table behind him.
Paintings Portray Indian Legends: Sinners, Belief Interpreted in Abstracts. Black and white photo of Howe standing in a black suit coat with a white shirt and dark tie. He wears metal glasses and has his hair slicked back. He holds a large framed painting that is comprised of overlapping someone translucent light colored geometric shapes with a dark figure in the middle. Other paintings hang on the wall in the background.
Corn Palace Artist Uses Ancient Indian Art in Modern Form. Black and white photo of Howe sitting at an easel with a large canvass painting. Another table with props and supplies are in the background.
Oscar Howe Depicts Apollo 11.]
Oscar Howe and Lawrence Welk outside the Corn Palace, Mitchell, South Dakota, September 21, 1963.
Photo: Dorothy Prather, Mitchell, South Dakota. Oscar Howe papers, Richardson Collection, Archives and Special Collections, University Libraries, University of South Dakota
[Artwork Description: Black and white vertical photo of Howe wearing a black suit and tie and white shirt and dark metal glasses with his black hair slicked back pointing above to the portrait of Lawrence Welk on the Corn Palace. Welk stands next to him wearing a dark suit and tie and white shirt. His black hair is also slicked back. He stands with arms to his sides leaning forward and smiling at Howe. Townspeople stand in the background at the doors of the Corn Palace. Above the awning, a strip of bricks appears which has a repeated pattern of dark triangles without tips at the top. Above are panels of portraits, the first being Welk’s. A dark circle surrounds the portrait of a smiling Welk who is wearing a white suit coat with a black bowtie. Below is the outline of a figure standing on a pedestal and holding an object in its outstretched left hand. A rounded awning juts out from the top casting a shadow on Welk’s head. To the right a dark column extends out of a box that is decorated with white and black checkered squares. The next painting is a large bird with wings outstretched inside a dark circle. Below a dark line under the circle is another scene which is too blurry to make out.]
Oscar Howe and Wayne Rhymond, looking at emblem designed by Howe for the Sioux City Air Force, 1961.
Oscar Howe papers, Richardson Collection, Archives and Special Collections, University Libraries, University of South Dakota
[Artwork Description: Black and white photo of Rhymond and Howe standing in front of a white wall with various framed emblems hanging. They are focused on one in the middle which has a circle in the center with a plane in the shape of a triangle with a white center and dark tips on the nose and wings. White jagged lines surround it. A scroll like banner beneath reads Souix City Air Defense. Howe is wearing a light-colored suit, white collared shirt, and black tie. He wears black metal glasses and his black hair is slicked back. He looks at the emblem, pointing to the base of the plane with his right pointer finger. Rhymond stands to the left in a dark uniform with a black stripe on the sleeves and metal buttons. He has short gray hair and is also focused on the emblem. The emblem beneath is a dark circle with white landscape like designs in the center. Behind Howe is an emblem that is a dark cylinder with a sash across it and black writing below. Above another emblem has a dark scarf life object laying over a horizontal oval shaped design with blurred words below.]
Ralph Edwards, Oscar Howe, and Vincent Price on This is Your Life, Studio City, California, 1960.
“This is Your Life®” courtesy of Ralph Edwards Productions
[Artwork Description: Howe stands on set in a light suit with a white collared shirt and a black tie. He wears black metal glasses and his black hair is slicked back. He is smiling as he shakes Price’s hand. Prince stands much taller than Howe and wears a dark suit with a white pocket square, white shirt, and dark tie. He smiles as he shakes Howe’s hand. Edwards stands behind Howe, back to the camera, wearing a black suit with a white shirt. He holds a large portfolio book and looks at Howe. Multiple paintings by Howe hang from the wooden wall behind them. Most are mostly covered by the men, but the one at the top middle is comprised of a series of figures that appear to be dancing with multiple lines and geometric shapes around them.]
Oscar Howe receiving recognition as artist laureate of South Dakota, University of South Dakota, 1960.
USD Photograph Collection, Archives and Special Collections, University Libraries, University of South Dakota
[Artwork Description: Black and white photograph of Howe wearing a light-colored suit with a white collared shirt and dark tie. He wears metal framed glasses and his dark and gray hair is slicked back. He shakes the hand of the man presenting the degree. The man wears a black suit with a white pocket square and a white shirt and light tie. He holds a paper against his chest with his wrist and the degree in a black cover. They stand on a football field and people watch in distance from bleachers. A row of trees lines the edge of the field behind the bleachers.]
Oscar Howe Elementary School dedication and opening, Oscar Howe and unidentified student, Vermillion, South Dakota, 1980.
Oscar Howe papers, Richardson Collection, Archives and Special Collections, University Libraries, University of South Dakota
[Artwork Description: Color vertical photo of an older Howe seated in a wheelchair wearing dark pants, a white collared shirt, black tie, and a brown and black checkered suit coat. He rests his bent arms on wheelchair arm rests. A young child with light skin and red hair wears a yellow t-shirt that says Oscar Howe in blue letters and light-colored pants with a brown belt. They stand in front of a tile wall with large letters that read Oscar Howe Elementary School.]
Newsprint credits
By headline, roughly from top to bottom, left to right.
Top: “Paintings By Oscar Howe at Smithsonian,” Daily Republic, Mitchell, SD, Thursday September 7, 1950 (headline);
“Grandmother’s Finger Painting First Instruction Of SD Artist,” Daily Republic, December 14, 1951;
“Indian Art on Display at Interior,” Washington Post, Thursday, December 5, 1963, Richardson Collection, Oscar Howe papers, Series 2, Box 4, Folder 1, 7742;
Archives and Special Collections, University Libraries, University of South Dakota; “Oscar Howe Paintings Shown in New York,” Daily Capital Journal, Pierre South Dakota, Tuesday October 25, 1955 (headline);
“The Palace that’s Painted with Corn,” Popular Mechanics, September 1959; “Oscar Howe: The Sioux Painter,” News report 1982-05, Issue number 91, Institute of Indian Studies, University of South Dakota, Oscar Howe papers, Richardson Collection, Archives and Special Collections, University Libraries, University of South Dakota;
“His Paints May Save A Dying Past,” Sioux City Sunday Journal, Sioux City, Iowa, November 8, 1959 (headline);
“Indian Artist Hopes for ‘Renaissance’,” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, Wednesday August 17, 1949. Center: “Indian Artist Keeps Culture of Sioux Alive,” Minneapolis Sunday Tribune, Picture magazine, March 30, 1958 (headline);
“Leading Sioux Painter Conquered Adversity,” Denver Post, Monday Dec 7, 1959 (headline);
“Howe’s Name Belongs On List Of Great Painters Of Indian Life,” Daily Republic, Saturday August 27, 1955 (headline);
“Gilcrease Museum Unveils Display Salute to Oscar Howe,” Tulsa World, October 15, 1982;
“Paintings Portray Indian Legends,” Sioux City Sunday Journal, December 28, 1969.
Bottom: “Howe relates life, theories,” Volante, vol. LXXXVII, February 24, 1970;
“Oscar Howe: More than an ‘Indian’ Artist,” Minneapolis Sunday Tribune, Picture magazine, September 5, 1976;
“Howe’s Brush Translates Indian Legends into Art” Omaha World Herald, May 29, 1967;
“The Grandson of ‘Don’t Know How’ Has that Artistic Know-How,” D. I. B. [Dictionary of International Biography] Magazine, May 1970, courtesy Oscar Howe papers, Richardson Collection, Archives and Special Collections, University Libraries, University of South Dakota;
“Talent of Native S.D. Artist Was Evident at Early Age,” Middle Border Bulletin, April, 1950 (headline);
“Young Sioux Artist,” Omaha World Herald, September 25, 1949;
“Oscar Howe Depicts Apollo 11,” Daily Republic, July 29, 1969 (headline);
“Corn Palace Artist Uses Ancient Indian Art in Modern Form,” Daily Republic, n.d.
All newsprint images courtesy of Archives and Special Collections, University Libraries, University of South Dakota