Dakota Modern
The Art of Oscar Howe
Edited by Kathleen Ash-Milby and Bill Anthes
Published by: National Museum of the American Indian
Imprint: National Museum of the American Indian
208 Pages | 9 x 11 | 151 color and 46 b&w illus.
$50.00
Oscar Howe (1915–1983) committed his artistic career to the preservation, relevance, and ongoing expression of his Dakota culture. He proved that art could be simultaneously modern and embedded in customary Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Sioux) culture and aesthetics—to him there was no contradiction.
Howe challenged the art establishment’s preconceptions and definitions of Native American painting. In doing so, he catalyzed a movement among Native artists to express their individuality rather than conforming to an established style. This legacy of innovation and advocacy continues to inspire generations of Native artists to take pride in their heritage and resist stereotypes.
Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe is published by the National Museum of the American Indian in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name. The book features the most extensive representation of Howe’s artworks to date, and it examines his life as both artist and educator. Coedited by Kathleen Ash-Milby and Bill Anthes, the catalog also includes contributions by Janet Catherine Berlo, Christina Burke, Philip J. Deloria, Erika Doss, Emil Her Many Horses, John Lukavic, Inge Dawn Howe Maresh, Anya Montiel, Denise Neil, and Joyce Szabo.
Howe challenged the art establishment’s preconceptions and definitions of Native American painting. In doing so, he catalyzed a movement among Native artists to express their individuality rather than conforming to an established style. This legacy of innovation and advocacy continues to inspire generations of Native artists to take pride in their heritage and resist stereotypes.
Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe is published by the National Museum of the American Indian in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name. The book features the most extensive representation of Howe’s artworks to date, and it examines his life as both artist and educator. Coedited by Kathleen Ash-Milby and Bill Anthes, the catalog also includes contributions by Janet Catherine Berlo, Christina Burke, Philip J. Deloria, Erika Doss, Emil Her Many Horses, John Lukavic, Inge Dawn Howe Maresh, Anya Montiel, Denise Neil, and Joyce Szabo.
Kathleen Ash-Milby is curator of Native American art at the Portland Art Museum, and the curator of the exhibition Dakota Modern: Tthe Art of Oscar Howe. As associate curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian she was the editor of HIDE: Skin as Material and Metaphor (NMAI, 2010) and co-editor of Kay WalkingStick: An American Artist (NMAI, 2015), with David Penney. Recent publications include essays in Art in America, Art Journal and Joseph E. Yoakum: What I Saw (Pascale, Mark, Esther Adler, and Édouard Kopp, eds, Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago; New York: The Museum of Modern Art; Houston: The Menil Collection, 2021). She received two Secretary of the Smithsonian’s Excellence in Research awards for her work and organized numerous exhibitions. She received her MA in Art History from the University of New Mexico and is a member of the Navajo Nation.
Bill Anthes is a professor in the Art Field Group at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, and the author of the books Native Moderns: American Indian Painting, 1940–1960 (2006) and Edgar Heap of Birds (2015) both published by Duke University Press. His essays and reviews have been published in American Indian Quarterly, Art Journal, Visual Anthropology Review, and other journals, edited collections, and exhibition catalogs. He has received fellowships and awards from the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Research Center, the Center for the Arts in Society at Carnegie Mellon University, the Rockefeller Foundation/Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, and the Creative Capital/Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program. Anthes received his PhD from the University of Minnesota in American Studies.
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