Allan Houser

Allan Houser
Allan working in his studio in 1985 on the maquette for "Abstract Infinity"
Born	Allan Capron Houser (1914-06-30)June 30, 1914 near Apache, Oklahoma
Died	August 22, 1994(1994-08-22) (aged 80) Santa Fe, New Mexico
Nationality	Chiricahua Apache
Education	Studio at Santa Fe Indian School
Known for	Sculpture, Painting, Drawing, Murals

Allan Capron Houser or Haozous (June 30, 1914—August 22, 1994) a Chiricahua Apache sculptor, painter and book illustrator born in Oklahoma. He was one of the most renowned Native American painters and Modernist sculptors of the 20th century.

Houser's work can be found at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, the National Museum of the American Indian, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC., and in numerous major museum collections throughout North America, Europe and Japan. Additionally, Houser's Offering of the Sacred Pipe is on display at United States Mission to the United Nations in New York City.

Born in 1914 to Sam and Blossom Haozous on the family farm near Apache, Oklahoma and Fort Sill, Native American artist Allan Houser was the first member of his family from the Warm Springs Chiricahua Apache tribe born outside of captivity since Geronimo’s 1886 surrender and the tribe's imprisonment by the U.S. government. The tribe had been led in battle by the legendary spiritual leader Geronimo, who would later rely on his grandnephew Sam Haozous, Allan’s father, to serve as his translator.

In 1934, Houser left Oklahoma at the age of 20 to study at Dorothy Dunn's Art Studio at the Santa Fe Indian School in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Dunn's method encouraged working from personal memory, avoiding techniques of perspective or modeling, and stylization of Native iconography. For the latter, Houser made hundreds of drawings and canvasses in Santa Fe and was one of Dunn's top students, but he found the program too constricting.