Allan Houser was born in 1914 near Apache, Oklahoma. He attended public and Indian schools, including the Santa Fe Indian School in New Mexico from 1934 to 1938. By 1939 his work was being exhibited at the World’s Fairs in New York and San Francisco and he was beginning to get commissions for building murals in Washington, D.C. He was convinced to start sculpture by his mentor at the Fort Sill Indian School. That was the beginning of a long and illustrious career Allan Houser’s artistic beginnings as a painter soon went beyond the parameters of that two dimensional medium. He continued to evolve as an artist; his natural abilities allowed him to transform the exquisite draftsmanship of the sketches into sophisticated and elegant three dimensional works of art. His sculptures exhibit a distinct volume and there is a charisma about their presence . While he never eliminated the subject matter of his Indian heritage, he became enthralled with the theme of mother and child and portrayed these classic images as both naturalistic in form and simplified abstractions. During his lifetime, Allan Houser won many awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Grand Award at the Philbrook Art Center, the Palmes d’Academique from the French government in 1954, and the National Medal of Arts, presented by President George H.W. Bush in 1992. His works are in collections throughout the world. | | 
Resting at the Spring, 1986
bronze
94" x 45" x 24
On Loan courtesy of Allan Houser, Inc. |
