Allen Houser’s Watercarrier was created in 1986 and is the 8th in an edition of 8 identical bronze sculptures. On loan from a private collection, Watercarrier is one of two Houser sculptures featured on the Christel DeHaan Terrace at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art. The monumental piece features an abstracted Native American woman balancing a container of water on her head. Watercarrier is an example of Houser’s use of elegant abstractions to depict Native American subjects.

Allan Houser (1914-2004) was a Chiricahua Apache sculptor, painter, and book illustrator born in Oklahoma. He is considered one of the most renowned Native American painters and Modernist sculptors of the 20th century. As the father of contemporary Native American sculpture, Houser was instrumental in helping generations of artists discover and express themselves in contemporary media through a uniquely Native perspective. Houser’s work can be found at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, the National Museum of the American Indian, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC., and in numerous major museum collections throughout North America, Europe, and Japan.