An American Modernist
Oscar Howe fractured stereotypes of Native art By Alexandra N. Harris
O
scar Howe, a Yanktonai Dakota artist, was one of the most innovative Native American painters of the 20th century.
Together, his modernist approach and life’s work promoting artistic innovation changed how the dominant art world defined contemporary Indige- nous art. Yet he has been relatively unknown in the broader American art canon. A new exhibition, “Dakota Modern: The Art of
Oscar Howe,” opening at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York in March and its companion catalog aim to establish Howe’s leg- acy as a modernist. They explore not only his art but also his life as an educator and advocate for artistic independence. Western definitions of fine art have historically precluded artists from non-Western or colonized origins, categorizing their work as “primitivism.” Instead of accepting that the innovation, exper- imentation and abstraction of modernism could emerge globally as a response to industrialization and exchanges of ideas, the Western art estab- lishment of the 19th and 20th centuries situated non-Western art—including progressive Indige- nous art such as Howe’s—outside the boundaries of fine art. Art institutions and critics expected that Native art (and Native people) be almost anti- modern—static, unchanging, outside of time—and so it was required to adhere to non-Native terms in order to be “authentic.” Experimentation was frowned upon and considered derivative of West- ern influences.
32 SPRING 2022 AMERICAN INDIAN Oscar Howe, however, rejected such premises.
Howe’s work does not go against tradition but expands the way those traditions can be expressed. Though grounded in culture, his experimentation and rejection of realism places him squarely as a modernist. Born in 1915 on the Crow Creek Indian Reserva-
tion in central South Dakota, Howe sourced his cul- tural subject matter from his grandmother’s Dakota teachings and, later, his own research. His artistic process was rooted in Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (or Sioux, which includes Lakota and Dakota dialects) lan- guage, aesthetics and philosophy. While in high school in the mid-1930s at the
Santa Fe Indian School, he learned the styles and subjects considered “traditional” to American Indian painting, which, ironically, were delineated by non-Native instructors. While studying for his bachelor’s degree at Dakota Wesleyan University from 1948 to 1952 and master’s degree at the Uni- versity of Oklahoma from 1952 to 1953, he gained exposure to mainstream Western artistic meth- ods. From that point on, he began to develop his own unique style, which evolved over his decades of work. He experimented with geometric abstrac- tion and incorporated processes that were singu- larly Dakota in origin. Though often mistaken as a cubist, Howe described his point-and-line composi- tion technique as “tahokmu,” or “th
ˇahóh ˇmuŋ,” the
“spiderweb,” a term with both visual and spiritual significance for Dakota people. The resulting effect is one of electricity, energy and movement.
Oscar Howe based this painting of a young girl crying out as she rides a bloodied horse on the story of his grandmother Shell Face. He said, “She had a scar on her hand where she had been shot through the hand by white soldiers.”
Oscar Howe (Yanktonai Dakota, 1915–1983); “Fleeing a Massacre,” 1969; casein on paper, 24.75” x 20.75”. BankWest, Pierre, South Dakota. BankWest, Inc.
COURTESY OF THE NMAI AND OSCAR HOWE FAMILY
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