A warrior sculpture in bronze by Allan Houser at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Photo © Laurel Kallenbach
If you haven’t seen the Denver Botanic Gardens’ exhibit, called Native Roots/ Modern Form: Plants, Peoples and the Art of Allan Houser, hurry over. The exhibit is on for just one more month, until November 13, 2011.
Houser’s exquisite bronze sculptures are wonderfully set among Southwestern plants at the Gardens and show the artist’s connection to the land and his pride in his native ancestry. An American modernist, Allan Houser (1914-1994) was a tribal member of the Warm Springs Chiricahua Apache, and he’s famous for his depiction of native themes and visages.
This exhibit celebrates bonds between people and also presents American Indian uses for plants indigenous to the Rocky Mountains and the Southwest.
The Botanic Gardens has once again melded sculptures and botanicals into something unique to behold.
—Laurel Kallenbach, freelance writer and editor
Navajo shepherd by Allan Houser. Photo © Laurel Kallenbach
Photos © Laurel Kallenbach
oh so that’s Allan Houser! Thanks! Mom must have loved that!
Rats! I missed it. This looks lovely, though.