After training at The Studio of the Santa Fe Indian School in the 1930s, the Chiricahua Apache artist Allan Houser (1914–1994) had both commercial and critical success as a painter and sculptor. Unlike some artists, he generally was not comfortable working in a painterly style but, believing that charcoals and pastels would enable him to intensify the freshness and spontaneity of his imagery, Houser began to focus on drawing. Houser built a dedicated drawing and design studio in Santa Fe in 1990 and was extremely prolific over the next four years. Allan Houser Drawings: The Centennial Exhibition offers a critical examination of Houser’s career as a draughtsman, from his early career to the rich body of work he produced late in life. Both the publication and the accompanying exhibition coincided with the centennial of Houser’s birth and a national celebration of the artist’s legacy.
