Art critic James D. Balestrieri wrote, “Howe was born and would spend most of his life in his native South Dakota. In addition to his long career as an easel painter, he would become a respected teacher at the University of South Dakota and a prominent painter of murals. Between 1934-38, however, he studied at the Santa Fe Indian School under Dorothy Dunn. Works from this period … exemplify the Santa Fe, or Studio, style – Native motifs and symbols arranged geometrically against a neutral background, derived, in part, from pottery and other cultural objects. The Studio style would become a hallmark of the Indian Annual competition at Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Philbrook Art Center, where Howe would win awards, serve as juror and write a famous, fiery letter after his painting Umine Wacipi (War and Peace Dance) was disqualified from competition in 1958 as not conforming to rules such as this one: ‘The use of symbols that are not used by the artist’s own tribe, or related to the subject matter of a given painting is deplored. In future, it is hoped that purely decorative elements that serve only to fill up space will be kept to a minimum, if not altogether excluded. The jury feels strongly that the use of pseudo-symbols detracts, rather than adds, in any painting.’ … Howe’s response, that Native artists were not to be dictated to like children and told what was and wasn’t Native art by Whites, was indignant. Howe wrote, ‘Indian Art can compete with any Art in the world, but not as a suppressed Art.’ This letter paved the way for new categories in sculpture and “non-traditional” art in the 1959 Annual, categories that would be flooded with entries, providing one of the first serious outlets for Indigenous modernism.

“Howe’s biography embodies contradictions, as an excellent – and corrective – essay in the catalog attests. As a result of a childhood illness, he spent many hours with his grandmother, who steeped him in the stories of their people, stories that would become the basis for Howe’s art. Yet he himself was a devout Episcopalian. Howe wanted his art to represent his people at their best, yet, as an academic – who married a woman from Germany – he found himself estranged from the reservation, and from his own family. Howe vehemently rejected scholarly comparisons between his work and that of the cubists, yet his master’s thesis, completed at the University of Oklahoma, as well as the accompanying artworks, demonstrate that he was not only exposed to but energized by modernist practice there, and that it would inform his work throughout his career. In short, Oscar Howe was a man on a tightrope, trying to make his own way and craft his own identity – as an artist and as human being – in an America whose attitudes towards Indigenous Peoples oscillated between patronization and hostility.”

Native arts scholar John P. Lukavic wrote, “In Dawn Rider Howe noted, ‘I tried to create the impression of a dawn rider coming out of the light of the sun.’ The idea for this composition came from his understanding of Očhéthi Šakówin warfare. Howe explained, ‘A rider camouflages himself and his pony with grape vines, sometimes drags some to stir up dust, in preparation for an early morning surprise attack on an enemy. The sun is used as part of the deceptive camouflaged movements during attack. Timing and positioning himself is essential as he must be in a direct line between his enemy and the sun. Eclipsing one as he attacks from the east. Relying on the momentary sun blindness or flashes which he hopes his enemy will encounter as he approaches him.’ The subject of Dawn Rider is not a specific historical event, but rather relates to the Indigenous knowledge that Howe feared his people were losing.”

PROVENANCE
Frank and Jan Gibbs Collection, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Reynolds Family Collection, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, ca. 1980s

EXHIBITED
Oscar Howe: A Retrospective Exhibition, Thomas Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1982

LITERATURE
Frederick J. Dockstader, Oscar Howe: A Retrospective Exhibition, Catalogue Raisonné, Thomas Gilcrease Museum, 1982, p. 27, illustrated

Additional Resources

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Condition ReportAs viewed through glass. Painting appears to be in excellent condition.

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