Born to a Kiowa father and a Comanche mother on June 5, 1921, in Anadarko, Oklahoma, Blackbear Bosin was to become an internationally recognized artist. He was named Blackbear -- Tsate Knogia -- after his great grandfather, and was raised in Comanche surroundings for the early years of his childhood. He attended St. Patrick's Mission School, where he was first exposed to the traditional art of
...see more » the Five Kiowa painters. He was a graduate of Cyril High School and attended a trade school in Chilocco while painting at night and peddling his pictures for $2.50 each. He left Oklahoma and joined the Marine Corps where he served for two years during World War II. He was given the opportunity to hold his first one-man show in Honolulu, Hawaii which sold out. In Wichita, Kansas, the city he adopted as his home, he developed his skills further and devoted all his efforts to portray scenes and tales of his beloved Native American heritage. Although he held several positions in the commercial art field with local businesses, Bosin's deep desire was to be a full-time artist. A self-taught artist, he developed his own style and used several media in his works but kept coming back to his favorite one, an opaque tempera called gouache, although he experimented in acrylic paints in his later years, enjoying the challenges of a completely alien medium. With his art, Blackbear not only contributed to American Indian art but also helped enhance a better understanding of his heritage by presenting it so beautifully to the world. His paintings have been shown widely across the nation and featured in numerous private collections. Some pieces are shown on a permanent basis at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona; the Philbrook Art Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma; the Whitney in Cody, Wyoming, and the Indian Center Museum in Wichita, Kansas. Blackbear Bosin started painting and never ceased until the day of his death, August 9, 1980.« see less
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