Desert Book - Desert Magazine of the Southwest

He Paints Pictures
You Can Understand
When Howard Bobbs does an Indian painting, he projects himself
back a century into history—"as if," writes Author LeViness, "he were
doing on-the-spot coverage of Southwest Indian wars for some graphic
journal of the period." It is in this way the artist "captures the glory"
that was once the Indians', and preserves it on memorable canvases.
HOWARD BOBBS of
Santa Fe specializes in portraits,
having done some of his
best work with Indian subject-matter.
But he looks and talks more like a
prosperous businessman.
Bobbs' appearance is a part of his
life-way. He believes art is as important
to a community as medicine, law
or engineering. "We spend long years
in schools and in practice learning how
to be artists," he says. "We must educate
the public not to pass us off as a
bunch of dreamy crackpots."
An enthusiastic archer, Bobbs hunts
with bow and arrow, and participates
in archery tournaments throughout the
By W. THETFORD LeVINESS
Southwest. Born in Pennsylvania in
1910, he grew up in New York City.
As a child he liked to draw, but flunked
several art classes in grade school because
he wished to be original. In
New York he attended the Art Students
League and the National Academy,
and then went to the Swain
School of Design in Boston. It was
after this that he toured the West and
became absorbed with Indians. He
paints some of them as they are now,
but much of his Indian work has a
historical flavor.
Bobbs does sweeping desert landscapes,
and then places Indians in
them as a punctuation. Nevertheless,
Howard Bobbs and
"Cheyenne Warrior"
he takes such meticulous care in his
composition that the finished paintings
stand up with the best Indian material
being produced today.
Take his "Navajos at Gallup," for
instance. It's a huge canvas which
Bobbs began as a contemporary New
Mexico desert scene. Wagonloads oi:
Navajo families and scouts on horseback
were added. The result is far
from contemporary—rather, it recalls
Navajos of Kit Carson's day, fighting
to get their wagons past frontier sentries.
Bobbs puts realistic movement
into this type of painting; his horses
gallop, his wagon trains roll. It's as if
he'd projected himself back a century
into history, as if he were doing onthe-spot
coverage of Southwest Indian
wars for some graphic journal of the
period.
Bobbs thinks most Indians exist
only in history books. "Indians are
given a white man's education but the
white man doesn't follow this up by
accepting them," he says. "When they
finish school they are neither fish nor
fowl. The whole process is one that
disintegrates their tribal life. All we
as painters can do is capture the glory
10 DESERT MAGAZINE