The Work of Allan Houser At the Phoenix Botanical Gardens
Phoenix has not been thought of in the past, as one of the US cities with a large art community. This is just simply not the case, as throughout the greater Phoenix area of Gilbert, Glendale, Chandler, Tempe and Scottsdale, festivals, music concerts, art openings and theatre and performance art is continuously happening. Do you need to look a little harder for it? In some cases, but in the downtown area, many of the coffee shops, the best Phoenix hotels, restaurants and boutiques are always hanging art on the walls and supporting the arts and the shows at the Herberger Theatre, or Grady Gammage in Tempe. Many lesser known artists participate each month, in the downtown First Friday Art Walk.
More well known and international artists can be found on Thursday night, at the Scottsdale Galleries art walk. Local musicians fill the streets, and art is everywhere, in fact—a little known fact, is that the city of Scottsdale sells more art each year than the art capital of the United States, New York City. Running through the month of May, people visiting the city will have the opportunity to view the work of one of the most famous artists of this city, Allan Houser. This is part of a collaboration, between the Phoenix Botanical Gardens located at the foot of the Papago Mountain Range , and the Heard Museum, located directly downtown.
This showing is entitled, “Tradition to Abstraction”, and will feature many of Houser’s paintings, as well as eighteen bronze sculptures, sketches and drawings. The show opened in November of 2009 and will continue through the next five months. Houser’s work has gained worldwide recognition through his intimate depictions of life, and his evocative use of shadows and light. Houser was born in Arizona in 1914, and was one of the children of the survivors of Fall Sill, and the Warm Springs Chiricahua Apache Tribe. His sculptures are modern, much in the style of Francisco Zu and Henry Moore, but he has become in his own right, known as the father of Native American Indian Sculpture. Throughout his life, up until his death in 1994, Houser was dedicated to creating bold figures in bronze and stone. His work will forever be remembered and cherished, long after the show closes in May.
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