The Houser/Haozous Family: Celebrating a Century
Intro panel
This exhibit celebrates the centennial of the birth of Allan Houser and 100 years of freedom for the Chiricahua Apache. The Houser/Haozous Family: Celebrating a Century pays homage to the birth of a child and a modern Indian nation through the art of an acclaimed family of artists.
The Chiricahua Apache were exiled from Arizona in 1886 and held as prisoners of war until 1913–14, when they were released from Fort Sill, Oklahoma. In that first year of freedom, Allan Houser was born. Houser became an internationally recognized sculptor and painter. Two of his sons, Phillip Haozous and Bob Haozous, have continued the family tradition of experimenting with new materials and techniques, producing art that honors their heritage and finds strength, even reverence, in the natural world.
The Houser/Haozous family has produced a tremendous variety of award-winning art reflecting on Apache history and illustrating the importance of family, music and song, and the preservation of Apache cultural traditions. As we commemorate this centennial moment for the Houser family and the Chiricahua Apache, we honor the breadth and depth of this family’s contribution to American Indian art.
Lobby text with Portable Apaches #4
The Heard pays homage to the birth of a child and a modern Indian nation through the art of an acclaimed family of artists. Allan Houser (1914-1994) was a Chiricahua Apache book illustrator, painter and one of the most renowned Modernist sculptors of the 20th century. We showcase Allan Houser and his sons—Phillip Haozous and Bob Haozous– with their sculpture in the Nichols Garden and adjacent Loggia.
The Houser/Haozous Family: Celebrating a Century
Object labels
Garden Area:
Allan Houser
Chiricahua (Warm Springs) Apache, 1914-1994
War Pony, 1978
Bronze, edition 19 of 20
Exemplifying the minimalist approach that Houser perfected in his later years, this bronze represents the fierceness and effectiveness of the horse as an instrument of war. The ability to be swift and mission-focused served both the Apache warriors and their rides in the 19th century.
Bequest of Ann B. Ritt
Allan Houser
Chiricahua (Warm Springs) Apache, 1914-1994
Gift of the Earth, 1991
Bronze, edition 10 of 12
The abstracted woman with a pot reflects influences from Diego Rivera and the Mexican muralists.
Bequest of Ann B. Ritt
Allan Houser
Chiricahua (Warm Springs) Apache, 1914-1994
People of the Rio Grande, 1984
Bronze, Artist’s Proof
This piece honors the Pueblo people, who are presented as mysterious and more ethereal, in contrast to the earthy recumbent female forms that the artist is also known for.
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. E. Daniel Albrecht
Allan Houser
Chiricahua (Warm Springs) Apache, 1914-1994
Apache Cradleboard, 1994
Bronze, edition 8 of 15
Used by generations of Apache women, the cradleboard is an iconic object that represents the importance of family and cultural traditions. The flow of the mother’s wrap down and around the cradleboard conveys the protective tie between mother and child.
Bequest of Ann B. Ritt
Phillip Haozous
Chiricahua (Warm Springs) Apache, b. 1941
Apache Clowns II, 2005
Bronze, edition of 8
For generations, the Apache Mountain Spirit dancers and clowns have performed for special ceremonies. Each October in Apache, Oklahoma, there is a gathering of Chiricahua Warm Springs Apache, and a central feature is a Dance of the Mountain Spirits. The ceremonies have singers, Mountain Spirit dancers and clowns. Contrary to the non-Apache meaning, the clowns are powerful figures who act as messengers and assistants to the Mountain Spirit dancers.
Courtesy of the artist
Allan Houser
Chiricahua (Warm Springs) Apache, 1914-1994
Wind on the Mesa, 1991
Bronze, edition 6 of 6
This sculpture depicts a standing woman with her cape crisscrossing in an angular fashion in front of her body. Her hair is blowing to the side, as if by the wind. The artist used a highly simplified style throughout the sculpture.
Bequest of Ann B. Ritt
Bob Haozous
Chiricahua (Warm Springs) Apache, b. 1943
Woman in Love, 1983
Stainless steel
Bob Haozous humorously comments on human nature in this steel work. The horizontal figure “floats” in a daze, eyes closed, a smile on her face—in love. The surface is etched with buffalos, used by Haozous as a personal iconographic design element and a direct reference to the stereotypical, romanticized past of the Indian.
Heard Museum purchase
Allan Houser
Chiricahua (Warm Springs) Apache, 1914-1994
Water Spirit Bird, 1980
Bronze, edition 8 of 10
This stylized bronze represents avian essence in its elegant simplicity. It depicts the Water Bird, an iconographic symbol associated with the Native American Church. The Native American Church has roots in Oklahoma dating back to the 1880s and blends traditional Native religious concepts and Christianity. Peyote meetings consist of an all-night ceremony, usually held in a tipi. At midnight, the participants are allowed to drink water, which is associated with life and healing. Often times, fans are made from the tail feathers of the water bird, and these are used for healing.
Bequest of Ann B. Ritt
Phillip Haozous
Chiricahua (Warm Springs) Apache, b. 1941
Great Spirit Buffalo II, 2006
Bronze, edition of 8
This bronze is an example of reverential reflection on the natural world. The artist explores both abstract and realistic forms in one monumental piece, dividing the buffalo in two, with angular, abstract lines on one side and a realistic portrait on the other.
Courtesy of the artist
Loggia Area:
Bob Haozous
Chiricahua (Warm Springs) Apache, b. 1943
4 Buffalo Standing Sideways, 1981
Slate
Here, buffalo are minimally represented and floating like clouds. The buffalo symbolize the physical and spiritual strength required to survive near-extinction, for both the American Indian people and the animal.
Gift of Meyer and Aileen Osofsky
Allan Houser
Chiricahua (Warm Springs) Apache, 1914-1994
Mescalero Drummer, 1984
Bronze, edition 11 of 12
The artist regularly attended the Fourth of July feast days in Mescalero, New Mexico, where he would see the Mountain Spirit dances and Mescalero singers. In turn, the Mescalero dance groups and singers attended the annual October gathering in Oklahoma. This sculpture, using a minimalist approach, captures the essence of a singer, with open mouth, hoop drumstick and the round top of the drum echoed by the circle of arms.
Bequest of Ann B. Ritt
Phillip Haozous
Chiricahua (Warm Springs) Apache, b. 1941
Allan Houser bust, 2001
Bronze
This portrait of Allan Houser was displayed at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, to accompany an exhibit of Allan Houser artworks.
Courtesy of the artist
Allan Houser
Chiricahua (Warm Springs) Apache, 1914-1994
Spirit House II, 1990
Bronze, edition 3 of 12
This abstraction of a Plains Indian tipi evokes the essence of a shelter. The bronze sheets in an arcing form suggest animal hides stretched to construct a cover. It conveys both mobility and a sense of home.
Bequest of Ann B. Ritt
Bob Haozous
Chiricahua (Warm Springs) Apache, b. 1943
White Dress, 1973
Wood, leather, brass tacks
Courtesy of Mareen Allen Nichols
Bob Haozous
Chiricahua (Warm Springs) Apache, b. 1943
The Vanishing Buffalo Herd, 1993
Cut steel, nickel-plated
Taking a very different approach to the symbol of the buffalo, this installation casts an ironic eye on the devastation of buffalo herds in the 19th century and the greed of today’s consumer. The artist hand-cut 100 small buffalo out of steel, shot them through with a rifle, and nickel-plated them. He lined up the buffalo in a gallery and put a relatively low price on them, which he knew would produce a “stampede” among collectors. When the show opened in Santa Fe, the gallery had a camera videotaping the sale, which recorded consumer behavior at its worst.
The installation is a statement about consumerism and the depletion of the Earth. The buffalo becomes a symbol of the genocide of Native Americans and our continuing exploitation of the Earth’s non-renewable resources.
Gift of Natalie Eigen
Allan Houser
Chiricahua (Warm Springs) Apache, 1914-1994
Spirit of the Wind, 1992
Bronze, edition 10 of 10
This sculpture captures the formless nature of the wind and is suggestive of tornadoes and high winds, a part of life on the plains of Oklahoma. The piece is fabricated from a thin sheet of bronze that is welded and formed into slender pointed curves that convey the dynamic and powerful force of the wind.
Bequest of Ann B. Ritt
Bob Haozous
Chiricahua (Warm Springs) Apache, b. 1943
Portable Apaches #4, 1990
Painted steel
This steel sculpture on wheels represents a Chiricahua Apache warrior who resisted the U.S. military from the 1860s to the 1880s. The warrior, holding a rifle and wearing a cartridge belt, is riddled with bullet holes. It appears to be an oversized figure from a shooting gallery. Knowing that the Chiricahua were relocated by the U.S. military many times, from the 1870s to their removal from Arizona in 1886, then their exile and movement from various military installations in Florida, Alabama and Oklahoma, it makes the series of “Portable Apaches” even more distressing.
Gift of Natalie Eigen