Allan Houser

Born Allan C. Haozous on June 30, 1914 near Apache, OK, Alan was the first member of his family of the Warm Springs Chiricahua Apache to be born outside of captivity.  Allan became one of the most influential Native American artists of the twentieth century.

In 1934 Houser studied at the Dorothy Dunn's art studio at the Santa Fe Indian School and went on to teach at the Intermountain Indian School in Brigham City, Utah and at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe NM.

Houser's retirement in 1975 marked the beginning of the most prolific stage of his career. With time, materials, and the family compound in southern Santa Fe county, Houser honed the visual language that was to become his artistic legacy. Fusing Native subject matter with the abstract forms and sculptural voids of his Modernist peers, Houser carried the mantle of both Native American and Modernism to new levels.

Numerous awards filled his life, including a Guggenheim Fellowship (1948) and the French Palmes d'Académiques (1954) for his exemplary work as both artist and teacher. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame and, in 1992, was the first Native American to receive the National Medal of Arts. His unceasing experimentation and creativity were expressed in subject matter that ranged from representations of Native figures of the past to contemporary abstractions without recognizable imagery. Houser died on August 22, 1994, in Santa Fe.