KIOWA-COMANCHE SCULPTOR & PAINTER TSATE KONGIA (BLACKBEAR BOSIN) DIED
Born June 5, 1921, in 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 as an illustrator for Boeing Aircraft. Combining Southern Plains flat style painting with surrealism, Bosin had his first solo exhibition in 1945. In 1955, National Geographic featured his painting as “Prairie Fire.” In 1965, he participated in the White House Festival of Arts. While primarily a painter internationally recognized for vivid watercolors and acrylics, his most widely-recognized work stands at the confluence of the Arkansas and Little Arkansas rivers in Wichita. The Keeper of the Plains, is his 44-foot-tall steel sculpture of an American Indian which he donated it to the city. Bosin died in Wichita.
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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