Author Description

This publication accompanies the temporary exhibition "Kiowa Agency: Stories of the Six" at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art. Between 1927 and 1929, six Kiowa artists created many paintings of Kiowa culture at the University of Oklahoma. Now referred to as the Kiowa Six, these artists included Spencer Asah, James Auchiah, Jack Hokeah, Stephen Mopope, Lois Smoky, and Monroe Tsa-toke. Previous scholarship about the group has credited Oscar B. Jacobson, then director of OU's School of Art, with "discovering" the Kiowa Six and playing a pivotal role in their artistic production. By contrast, this exhibit focuses on the artists' own agency and artistic legacy. The exhibition demonstrates how both before and after their short residencies at OU, members of the Kiowa Six acted as strong agents of cultural preservation and transmission while navigating pressures of assimilation from the federal Kiowa Agency and external expectations for their artistic practices. "Kiowa Agency" is generously supported by the Mellon Foundation and was curated by graduate students Mariah Ashbacher, Julia Harth, and Olivia von Gries.