Arts Alive | July/August 2023 | South Dakota Magazine

Dakota Modern THE ART OF OSCAR HOWE

June 10 –

September 17, 2023

South Dakota Art Museum

Abstraction after Wakapana

OSCAR

HOWE

became South Dakota’s first artist laureate in 1960. He taught and served as artist-in-residence at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion from 1957 until his retirement in 1980.

Howe became known for using bright colors, pristine lines and innovative abstract elements that challenged the conventional interpretation of traditional Native art.

Howe directly influenced a generation of Native American painters on the Northern Plains — including Donald Montileaux, Arthur Amiotte, Colleen Cutshall, Bobby Penn — and dozens more across the country. Many of them first met Howe when he started inviting high school students into his classroom for two weeks during the summer to intensively study Native art — not only how to make it but what it could be, a concept that put him at odds with the art establishment in the United States.

DAKOTA MODERN,

the first major retrospective of Oscar Howe’s life and work since his death in 1983, will be exhibited at the South Dakota Art Museum in Brookings from June 10 to September 17. A collaboration of the Portland Art Museum and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in New York City, Dakota Modern features nearly 70 paintings from museums, historical institutions and private collections across the United States, including many works that have never been exhibited publicly. Historic photographs, ephemera, film and a multi-authored catalog edited by Kathleen Ash-Milby, Curator of Native American Art at the Portland Art Museum, and scholar Bill Anthes, a professor at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, also accompany the exhibition.

HOMAGE TO HOWE

The Oscar Howe Legacy Exhibition, featuring works by 16 artists created as an homage to Howe, will be on display at the University Art Galleries at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion from August 21 to October 7, the closing date coinciding with the 40th anniversary of Howe’s death. Four artists will represent four eras (the 1960s and 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, 2000s and 2010s and artists of today and tomorrow). “The belief is that what you do comes back to you four times, or it could reach outward four times,” says co-curator Keith BraveHeart, an art instructor at Oglala Lakota College in Kyle. “I believe that what Oscar did has had an impact on four generations.”

The South Dakota Art Museum’s companion exhibit Continuum: Honoring Oscar Howe’s Legacy focuses on Howe as a teacher and mentor. It includes works from his students and other artists who have been influenced by his work.

Become a Member!

Support the arts by becoming a member of Arts South Dakota! Learn more and give today at ArtsSouthDakota.org!

Arts South Dakota, a non-partisan and non-profit service organization, advances the arts for South Dakotans and our visitors by connecting, advocating, and educating.

The South Dakota Arts Council is a state agency serving South Dakotans and their communities through the arts.

FROM ARTS SOUTH DAKOTA AND THE SOUTH DAKOTA ARTS COUNCIL