KIOWA-COMANCHE TSATE KONGIA (BLACKBEAR BOSIN) BORN—SCULPTOR & PAINTER
From Anadarko, Oklahoma, Bosin was exposed during his school years to the paintings of the famed “Kiowa Five.” Moving to Wichita, Kansas, in 1940, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II and later worked as a color separator and plate maker for Western Lithograph and illustrator for Boeing Aircraft. Combining Southern Plains flat style painting with surrealism, he had his first solo exhibition in 1945. By 1955, National Geographic featured his painting as “Prairie Fire.” In 1965, he participated in the White House Festival of Arts. Standing at the confluence of the Arkansas and Little Arkansas rivers in Wichita is The Keeper of the Plains, his 44-foot- tall steel sculpture of an American Indian. Bosin donated it to the city. Yet, while it is his most widely recognized work, he was primarily a painter internationally recognized for vivid watercolors and acrylics. Bosin died August 9, 1980, in Wichita, Kansas.
Source: “Blackbear Bosin,” Kansapedia: Kansas Historical Society. Retrieved 5/7/2020, https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/blackbear-bosin/11985 Photo: Art Davis, 5/1/2015. Permissive Use.
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