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Oscar Howe, Bear Dancer

Oscar Howe
1915-1983
Yankton Dakota
Alternative Name
Mazuha Hokshina (Trader Boy)
Date
1962
Medium Specific
Casein on watercolor paper
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
15 1/2 x 19 in. (39.4 x 48.3 cm)Sheet: 17 x 20 1/4 in. (43.2 x 51.4 cm)
Accession Number
2013.35.15.06
Credit
Gift of John N. Pratt and family
Biography
Oscar Howe was born in Joe Creek, South Dakota in May 13, 1915[1] on the Crow Creek Sioux Reservation. His Dakota name was Mazuha Hokshina, or "Trader Boy." Descended from hereditary chiefs, he belonged to the Yanktonai band of Dakota people.

His artistic talent was recognized when he was young, and he studied in Dorothy Dunn’s art program at the Studio of Santa Fe Indian School from 1933 to 1938. In 1940, Howe was sent by the South Dakota Artists Project (a division of the Works Progress Administration in the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration) to Fort Sill Indian Art Center in Lawton, Oklahoma, to study mural painting techniques with Olle Nordmark. WPA artists were being commissioned to do murals in numerous federal buildings and sometimes local public buildings as well.[5]

After working for several years and serving in World War II, Howe went to college on the GI Bill, earning his B.A. degree at Dakota Wesleyan University in 1952. Having worked as an artist for more than a decade, he also taught as Artist-in-Residence. He received his M.F.A. at the University of Oklahoma in 1954. Howe became Professor of Art at the University of South Dakota, in Vermillion, South Dakota, in 1957. He taught there until 1983.

Over his 41-year career, Oscar Howe won numerous awards, including grand and first prizes.[3] His works were displayed all over the world, including Paris, France and London, England, with more than 50 solo shows. Howe passed away October 7, 1983.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Howe, 2020
Date of Bio