With a background in both worlds -- i.e., an Indian heritage and European training Haozous avoids the obvious solution of working in one mode with the superficial trappings of the other. Instead he has chosen a sterner path. He puts the two influences on a collision course within his artistic concept, then slices through them with the same ferocious skill with which he wields a cutting torch. He reshapes and juxtaposes the fragments until a third reality emerges.
Susan Deats, “Facing the Contradictions†1987
Bob Haozous is a man with a mission, or two. Some thirty years ago he set out to be a damn good sculpture. He has since achieved this, successfully wedding Native and especially Apache imagery with powerful form and a sharp unequivocal wit aimed at contemporary American life., at “the white man in all of usâ€. Between them, he and his father – the deeply respected Allan Houser – have defined the range of Native American sculpture.
Lucy Lippard in “ Bob Haozous - Indigenous Dialogue†2006, exhibition catalogue for the Bob Haozous retrospective at the Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, Santa Fe, NM curated by Josph Sanchez
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