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Celebrating Allan Haozous (Houser)
In honor of Native American Heritage Month, today’s Doodle celebrates renowned Chiricahua Apache sculptor, painter, and book illustrator Allan Haozous (Houser). Created by Albuquerque-based Lynnette Haozous, today’s artwork depicts Haozous in his element working on a sculpture of an Apache man and woman. On this day in 2012, his sculpture The Future was unveiled at the Autry Museum of the American West.
Haozous was born on June 30, 1914 in Apache, Oklahoma, to two parents who had experienced the trauma of being held as political prisoners for 27 years due to their tribal affiliation. Haozous was born soon after their release and grew up on a farm where he learned about his culture through stories and songs his father shared. When he turned 20, he moved to New Mexico and started painting at the Santa Fe Indian School.
Haozous’ skill was quickly recognized and commissions started rolling in. In 1939 he created murals for the New York World’s Fair, the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C., and the Golden Gate Exposition. Haozous was commissioned by the Haskell Institute to create a memorial honoring the Native American soldiers who had died in WWI. This piece, Comrade in Mourning (1948), was Haozous' first marble sculpture. The following year, he received the Guggenheim Fellowship for sculpting and painting, which allowed him to dedicate more time to his craft.
Haozous taught the next generation of Native American artists from 1951 to 1975, both at the Inter-Mountain Indian School in Utah and the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, where he created the sculpture department. During this time, he showed his artistic range by creating hundreds of paintings, illustrating several children’s books, and making carvings from bronze, stone, and steel.
Haozous left teaching in 1975 and produced almost 1,000 sculptures in various mediums during his retirement which garnered international acclaim. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1985 and was the featured artist of the 2002 Winter Olympics hosted in Utah. Over his career he received many awards for his art and was the first Native American to win the National Medal of Arts.
Today, many enjoy Haozous’ pieces which are displayed across several cities including, Santa Fe, Vancouver, London, Paris, Tokyo, and a few D.C. museums including the Smithsonian Museum of American Art.
And as always have a chilled day from the Viking
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