Image Source: South Dakota Hall of Fame
Oscar Howe, a Yankton artist, was born on the Crow Creek Reservation in South Dakota. The great-grandson of the tribal historian, Oscar, wanted to draw and paint even as a child. Although his parents did not encourage his artistic pursuits, Oscar continued to draw. Due to a skin disease that kept him inside, he spent many hours alone practicing his art.
After being sent to a government Indian school, Oscar ran away several times. Finally, the school authorities sent the sick child home to be cared for by his grandmother. She taught him the traditional art of his historian great-grandfather, painting on buffalo hides. When Howe was twenty, he contracted tuberculosis and moved to Santa Fe. While in Santa Fe, he completed high school, studied art, and recovered from his illness.
When Howe returned from World War II, he graduated from Dakota Wesleyan University and became the artist-in-residence. He received a Master of Fine Arts from Oklahoma University. While teaching at the University of South Dakota, Howe continued to paint. He created a liner abstract design concept that utilizes the formal elements of line, color, and space to interpret his heritage.
At first, critics did not accept his work, citing that it did “not look Indian.” This criticism has been reversed over time, and one of his most famous paintings, Ghost Dance, is in the Heard Museum in Phoenix. The Oscar Howe Art Center in Mitchell, South Dakota, is dedicated to his work, and there is an extensive collection of his paintings at South Dakota State University. Oscar Howe succumbed to Parkinson’s Disease in 1983.
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