Oscar Howe - The Visionary Painter

Artist and Educator

Born: May 13, 1915, in Joe Creek, South Dakota, U.S.A.
Died: 1983 in Vermillion, South Dakota, U.S.A.

Oscar Howe was a modernist painter and arts educator who challenged art institutions’ preconceptions about Native American artwork.

Oscar Howe was born on the Crow Creek Reservation of South Dakota. He identified as a Yanktonai Dakota man and was part of the broader Očhéthi Šakówiŋ [oh-CHEH-tee shaw-KOH-we] culture.

Howe influenced history through his paintings. He also impacted people through his work as an educator. His own experience in school, like that of many Native American children who attended U.S. Boarding schools in the 19th and 20th centuries, was extremely difficult. The boarding schools forced students to live outside of their Indigenous cultural practices. When Howe entered Pierre Indian School, he only spoke Dakota. He did not know English, but he endured physical abuse as punishment for speaking his language. His mother died two years after he had arrived at the school, and he developed serious skin and eye conditions. Doctors dismissed him as incurable. The school sent him home. He was able to slowly recover in the care of his grandmother, Shell Face. She taught Oscar many of the cultural symbols and stories that he explored in his paintings.

Howe did not complete eighth grade until 1933. He continued his education at the Santa Fe Indian School, which was famous for teaching the Studio Style of painting. He excelled. In 1940, he joined the South Dakota Artist Project, which was part of The Works Progress Administration (a government agency that provided jobs for artists while beautifying public spaces.) Howe served three years in the U.S. military before attending Dakota Wesleyan University from 1948-1952.

The Studio Style that Oscar had learned in Santa Fe dominated people’s ideas about Native American art. Even though the style had been created by a non-native white woman, Native American artists were expected to follow its visual standards. As Howe developed his own approach to painting, he received criticism. He disregarded people’s expectations. Even if it meant he wouldn’t be as popular, he continued working in his unique style.

Howe worked as an artist and educator, earning his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1954. For four years, he was the director of art at T.F. Riggs high school in Pierre. In 1957, he became a professor at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, where he taught for 25 years.

In 1958, he entered an art competition at the Philbrook Museum of Art. His painting defied the jury’s expectations. The Curator of Indian Art wrote to Howe, telling him that the jury rejected his painting because it was not "traditional Indian painting." Howe wrote back to refute their claim. “Who ever said that my paintings are not in the traditional Indian style, has poor knowledge of Indian Art indeed. This 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?” This letter gained attention, and it led the Philbrook changing its rules.

Howe is credited with opening museums to a greater range of styles and expressions by indigenous artists. Though he died of Parkinson’s disease in 1983, his influential place in the broader history of art continues to be explored. His work has been displayed and at museums like the National Museum of the American Indian, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

References:
Gardiner, Susannah. Smithsonian Magazine, 25 Apr. 2022, smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/who-gets-to-define-native-american-art-180979968.
“Oscar Howe Biography.” South Dakota Art Museum, South Dakota State University, sdstate.edu/south-dakota-art-museum/oscar-howe-biography .
“Oscar Howe Biography.” University of South Dakota Art Galleries, www.usdartgalleries.com/oscar-howe.
“Oscar Howe: Ikíćiksapa.” Plains Art Museum, 2023, plainsart.org/exhibitions/oscar-howe/.

Keywords:
Arts, Innovation, Courage, Perseverance, Achievement, Responsibility, Challenge Injustices, Make a Difference

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Oscar Howe artworks