Allan Houser: An American Master (Chiricahua Apache, 1914-1994)

This lavish monograph--which coincides with the National Museum of the American Indian's exhibition""Giants of 20th-Century Native American Art: George Morrison and Allan Houser""--features over 250 full-color illustrations and photographs, as well as black and white photographs from the Houser family archive. The book is almost as monumental in scope (and size) as one of Houser's teeming and graceful figurative sculptures: it's the first book entirely devoted to the internationally renowned Master Artist in 16 years. University of Houston art historian Rushing begins with Houser, ne Allan Capron Haozous, growing up in the aftermath of the U.S. government's 27 year-long internment of the Apache as prisoners of war, and his 1932 departure from the Fort Sill, Okla. Apache reservation, at age 20, to study painting at the Santa Fe Indian School. Rushing highlights Houser's conscious aim of absorbing and refracting European modernism with a decidedly critical eye, and gives crucial context to Houser's figurative painting and sculpture.