Howard Terpning

Howard Terpning (born 1927 in Oak Park, Illinois) has lived two remarkable artistic careers within a single lifetime. The first was as one of Hollywood's most sought-after movie poster artists, producing iconic work for major studio films across two decades - his poster commissions include "Cleopatra," "The Sound of Music," "Camelot," and dozens of other celebrated films. The second, which began when he left commercial art in the early 1980s to paint full-time, has made him one of the most significant Western painters of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Settling in Scottsdale, Arizona, Terpning devoted himself to rigorous historical research and studio painting, focusing his attention on the cultures of the Northern Plains - Blackfoot, Crow, and Lakota peoples - at moments of trade, ceremony, and daily life. He spent years studying artifacts, historical photographs, and primary sources, and the cultural accuracy of his paintings is considered among the highest of any artist working in the Western figurative tradition. His works combine academic realism with genuine cultural respect, and they reflect an understanding of the peoples he depicts that goes well beyond the romanticized, stereotyped imagery that dominated the genre for most of its history. The depth and consistency of his achievement has been recognized with an extraordinary number of Prix de West awards at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum - more than any other artist - and he has been inducted into the Cowboy Artists of America, whose standards for research, technique, and integrity align closely with his own practice. His paintings regularly achieve significant prices at the major Western art auctions held annually in Scottsdale and elsewhere. Terpning continues to work from his studio in the Southwest, his paintings sought by collectors worldwide and his influence on younger figurative painters in the Western tradition substantial.