A LOST PAINTING might be the best way to begin to appreciate the art of Oscar Howe (Yanktonai Dakota, 1915–1983). A perennial favorite at the Indian Annual competition at Tulsa’s Philbrook Art Center (now the Philbrook Museum of Art), Howe would win numerous awards and serve as juror, but the fiery letter he sent after his now-lost painting Umine Wacipi (War and Peace Dance) was disqualified in 1958 demonstrates how the artist struggled to make his art relevant in two worlds: the traditional Yanktonai Lakota world of his native South Dakota and the art world and market which were, and still are, dominated by whites.
“Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe,” an exhibition on view until September
