Allan Houser; Patriarch of Native American Sculptors

Apache sculptor Allan Houser, a National Medal of Arts winner who was considered the patriarch of Native American sculptors, has died at age 80.

Houser died of colon cancer Monday night at his Santa Fe home.

President George Bush presented him with the National Medal of Arts in 1992, honoring his work, which often portrays mother and child, warriors on horseback, or Apache dancers.

Houser’s sculptures have been shown in museums and galleries worldwide. His style ranged from dramatic realism to abstract geometric forms.

Experimentation was crucial to his work, Houser said in a 1991 interview.

“It’s what keeps you alive. I’d get bored if I did the same thing all the time,” he said.

Ellen Landis, curator of art at the Albuquerque Museum, called Houser’s death a universal loss: “He was the leading Indian sculptor, but the loss goes far beyond ethnicity.”

Houser’s work is in the British Royal Collection, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the Linden Museum in Stuttgart, Germany.

The artist presented a peace sculpture to First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in April. It was a monumental bronze of an Indian holding aloft a sacred pipe as an offering to the Great Spirit, titled “May We Have Peace.”

Houser called it a gift from Native Americans to all people.

Born near Apache, Okla., Houser was the son of Sam Haozous, who was a grandson of Apache chief Mangas Coloradas.

Houser once said he changed the spelling of his surname, which means “pulling roots,” to make it easier to pronounce.

He attended Santa Fe Indian School in the 1930s and received commissions from the federal Works Progress Administration and the Interior Department. In the 1940s he received two Guggenheim fellowships.

After more than 20 years of teaching, Houser quit in 1975 to devote all his time to his art, working in stone, wood and bronze.