Blackbear Bosin (June 5, 1921 – August 9, 1980) was a self-taught Kiowa/Comanche sculptor, painter, and commercial artist. He is also known by his Kiowa name, Tsate Kongia (Kiowa: Sétkóñ:gyái)Dane Poolaw (2023) ǥáuiđòᵰ꞉gyà–tʼáukáuidóᵰ꞉gyá : Kiowa–English student glossary., which means "black bear."
Bosin gained notoriety for his surreal and dynamic variations on the traditional Flatstyle painting of the Southern Plains Indians, and he added depth, motion, and drama to the genre while emphasizing symbolism.Wind Spirit, (tornado) (ca. 1955), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City (image of painting, with description of it and artist)Glaze, Michele Powers: "Art Gallery: Blackbear Bosin," July 13, 2022, Cowboys & Indians (magazine), (includes reproductions of Bosin paintings Prairie Fire, Reflections of Rainy Mountain, and Torches of the Soul Seekers.), retrieved December 3, 2022Two Indians, by F. Blackbear Bosin, Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma, retrieved December 5, 2022
His works have been modern icons of Native American art,"Keeper of the Plains, Wichita," "8 Wonders of Kansas Overall," Kansas Sampler, retrieved December 3, 2022 and of his community (Wichita), county (Sedgwick County), state (Kansas) and region."Keeper of the Plains," Arts and Cultural Services, City of Wichita, retrieved December 3, 2022 Official website of Sedgwick County, Kansas government, Sedgwick County, Kansas, with official seal depicting Bosin's Keeper of the Plains, retrieved December 3, 2022"Proclamation" in "Minutes: Regular Meeting, Meeting of the Board of County Commissioners: May 19, 2004," Sedgwick County Commission, retrieved December 2, 2022"Kansas Cultural Icons," January 18, 2019, Kansas Public Radio (includes photo of The Keeper of the Plains, and link to enlarged Wolf Creek logo), retrieved December 5, 2022
Early life (1921–1946)
Francis Blackbear Bosin was born June 5, 1921, in Cyril, Oklahoma, near Anadarko, reportedly in a tipi."About the Artist,", Blackbear Bosin Legacy Project, Carriage Factory Art Gallery, Newton, Kansas. His father, Frank Blackbear, was Kiowa, and his mother, Ada Tivis Bosin, was of the Quahadi (Antelope Eater) band, of the Comanche Nation. His Kiowa name, Tsate Kongia (Kiowa: Sétkóñ:gyái), means "Blackbear" and belongs to his paternal grandfather, a Kiowa chief. As the oldest male child, he was sent to live with his maternal, Comanche grandparents as soon as he could walk. He attended St. Patrick's Mission School in Anadarko where he was exposed to the paintings of the Kiowa Six.
Bosin briefly studied Anadarko High School before leaving to attend Cyril High School. At 17, Bosin married Ruth Johnson (Caddo), and the couple had two daughters, Rowena and Patricia. The University of Oklahoma offered him an arts scholarship after graduating high school, but due to his new responsibilities as a husband and a father, he turned it down. Instead, he chose to attend the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School where he trained to work with sheet metal. In 1940, Bosin and Johnson moved to Wichita, Kansas, with their daughters. It was here that the couple had two sons, Francis Jr. and Niles. Bosin found work at Beech Aircraft.
To support his family, Bosin enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and was trained as a machine gunner. In November 1943, while stationed in Maui, Hawaii, he fell ill and had to be hospitalized at Aiea Heights Naval Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii. Here he took up painting again. Before his discharge in 1945, the hospital hosted a one-man exhibition of his works (later mistakenly reported a one-man exhibition of the Honolulu Academy of Arts). Before leaving the military, Bosin briefly returned to Wichita to sign divorce papers, which marked the end of his marriage with Johnson. Bosin permanently returned to Wichita in 1946, where he worked as a color separator and plate maker for Western Lithograph and then as an industrial designer and production illustrator for Boeing-Wichita.
Art career (1946–1967) After returning to Wichita in 1946, Bosin continued to paint. In the same year, he entered the Philbrook Art Center's first Indian Artists Annual, where he won an honorable mention for Green Corn Dance."Minataree Green Corn Dance," by Blackbear Bosin (with photo of painting), National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., retrieved December 3, 2022 After his success at the Philbrook, Bosin continued to enter art competitions there and at other galleries, art centers, and museums. Between 1947 and 1948, his work was included in exhibitions at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts and the Detroit Institute of Arts. In 1951, Bosin entered an Indian art competition held by the Denver Museum of Art, where he was awarded the Purchase Prize.
Bosin's career as an artist began to take off in the early 1950s, beginning in 1950 with a special showing of 66 of his paintings, at the National Museum of Natural History, of the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C. At the Philbrook's Indian Art Annual in 1952 he was awarded first prize for Death Bird.
While working at Boeing, Bosin met Nola Simmonds, an art teacher who would later become his wife. The two were married in 1953, after which they moved in together and Bosin became stepfather to David, Simmonds only child. Bosin's daughters lived with the family in Wichita until they both graduated high school, and one of his sons, Francis Jr., lived with them up until the sixth grade.
Also in 1953, Bosin again secured first place at the Philbrook with Prairie Fire, the piece that eventually brought him international recognition. The acclaimed painting was purchased by the Philbrook and later featured as a centerfold, with detailed description, in the May 1955 issue of National Geographic. The work, with its vivid depiction of action—Indians on galloping horses, and animals desperately fleeing an oncoming fire—was regarded as a turning point in the field of normally static Plains Indians art. For a time, it was displayed in the White House.
In 1955, his works were exhibited at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. In 1955, Wind Spirit, the companion piece to Prairie Fire, was shown at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco, and then won the Purchase Prize at the Philbrook's Indian Annual. After the competition, the Philbrook invited Bosin to participate in a one-man exhibition.
Bosin opened the Great Plains Studio in 1959 to expand his studio space and display his art alongside the works of other Indigenous artists. The same year, he was commissioned by the Hotel Broadview in downtown Wichita to design a mosaic mural for the Crystal Ballroom. Constructed entirely from semi-opaque glass chips and measuring an incredible 1,500 square feet, The Advance of Civilization in Kansas is the largest continuous mural in Kansas."Drury Plaza Hotel Broadview," 2022, Wichita Downtown Development Corporation (WDDC), retrieved December 3, 2022
His paintings continued to be awarded by art institutions. In 1960, Bosin entered the All-Indian Show in New York, where he won both the First and Grand Prize. The following year he traveled to Kreuzlingen, Switzerland, to receive honors after he was elected Fellow of the International Institute of Arts and Letters (IIAL). In the same year, two of his former entries in the Philbrook's Indian Artist Annual were purchased by the Arts and Crafts Board of the U.S. Department of the Interior. In 1963, the Philbrook hosted another one-man show of Bosin's work and four of his pieces were included in the Heard Museum's Gallery of Indian Art's inaugural exhibition.
Two years later, in 1965, Bosin proceeded to win first place and the Grand Prize at the Philbrook's Indian Artists Annual. The same year, the Wichita Art Museum hosted a showing of 24 of Bosin's works. The museum later commissioned him to do a painting titled, Wichita, My Son, which represents the relationship between Wichita and the local Indigenous communities. Bosin also participated in an exhibition at the Whitney Gallery of Western Art at the Buffalo Bill Cody complex in Cody, Wyoming.
Bosin was the only Native American artist to participate in the 1965 White House Festival of the Arts, when Prairie Fire was displayed at both the White House and the National Gallery of Art."White House Festival of the Arts Foundation," June 19 – July 11, 1965, National Gallery of Art , retrieved December 3, 2022 The beaded bowtie and cummerbund he wore were made by his mother and attracted the attention of the First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, who requested that Bosin be moved to sit at her table.
The U.S. Department of the Interior commissioned a series of paintings from Bosin, known as the Kiowa Series, devoted to displaying the historical and religious heritage of the Kiowa. The series consisted of three works, Of the Owls Telling (Of the Owls Telling, of the Kiowa Series, (1965-1966), (image), Native American Art, Gallery 3, FirstPeoples.org), Taime Man, and The Ten Grandmothers. Bosin completed the first two paintings between 1965 and 1966, but the final work was not finished until 1973 and the series was not publicly displayed until 1976. He was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board of the Department of the Interior in 1966.
In 1967, Bosin was awarded the Victory Trophy at the 22nd Indian Annual hosted by the Philbrook. After receiving this award, he decided to step back from entering art competitions altogether because he believed it was time for younger artists to gain recognition. He was also chosen as an exhibitor, that year, for the Smithsonian Institution's American Discovers Indian Art Show.
Later years and death (1967–1980) Keeper of the Plains Bosin had been experiencing health issues, starting in 1960 when he was diagnosed with diabetes, but his health worsened significantly in 1968. He had to be hospitalized for a period and his doctors advised that he slow down his work. A year later, Bosin suffered his first heart attack.
While in the hospital, Elmer Hall, a friend of Bosin and employee of the KG&E plant in Wichita, asked Bosin if he would design a large-scale statue as tribute to the Indigenous peoples in the area. The statue — a 44-foot, 5-ton, Cor-Ten steel sculpture — is a giant, stylized representation of a Native American in historic dress, gesturing to the Great Spirit in the sky, and titled The Keeper of the Plains.
It is situated near the city's center, immediately northwest of downtown Wichita, adjacent to the grounds of the Mid-America All-Indian Center, at the confluence of the Big Arkansas and Little Arkansas rivers,—a site sacred to Native Americans, and the former home of the Wichita tribe.
Construction of the sculpture began in 1970 and, after multiple financial setbacks, was finally completed in 1974, ostensibly as a commemorative project in preparation for the 1976 United States Bicentennial. A ceremony with performances and blessings by local Indigenous peoples, including a blessing in the Winnebago language by Etta Hunter, and speech by U.S. Senator Bob Dole, was held for the official unveiling of the giant sculpture.
In subsequent years, the statue has come be the unofficial (in some cases, official) symbol of Wichita, — widely reproduced and representedNewton, Ryan: "10-foot tall Keeper of the Plains statues invade Wichita," August 19, 2017, Kansas State Network, retrieved December 4, 2022Neil, Denise: " Can you find the 13 colorful Keeper statues that have just moved into Wichita parks?," September 11, 2020, Wichita Eagle retrieved December 4, 2022Newton, Ryan: "New Keeper of the Plains statues in Wichita," April 26, 2022, Kansas State Network, retrieved December 4, 2022 — and is the core element in the official seal of the surrounding county, Sedgwick County, Kansas.