Doug Hyde

Born in Hermiston, Oregon, Doug Hyde, whose heritage includes Nez Perce, Assiniboine, and Chippewa, was inspired by the lore he learned as a youth from his grandfather and other tribal elders.

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Hyde attended the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in the early 1960s and then the San Francisco Art Institute on scholarship in 1967. He enlisted in the U.S. Army, was sent to Vietnam, and completed two combat tours.

When he returned to Santa Fe in 1972 to teach at IAIA, he brought with him the ability to transform his ideas into three-dimensional objects. He was on the faculty at IAIA until 1974 when he left to devote himself fully to art. Sculpting in stone and bronze remains the passion and focus of his life.

Hyde is a Fellow of the National Sculpture Society and in 2008 was elected to its board of directors. At the Autry National Center of the American West’s 2008 Masters of the American West Fine Art Exhibition and Sale in Los Angeles, he won the Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation Award for Sculpture. Also in 2008, his 14-foot bronze, Little Turtle, was purchased for the permanent collection of the Smithsonian’s Cultural Resource Center in Washington, D.C. In 2009 he won the Best Sculpture Award at the Eiteljorg Museum’s Quest for the West Show and Sale.

Hyde expresses Indian mythology and spirit through his sculpture. “My work is about combining the stone and the ideas—feeling what is hidden in the stone and releasing the energy within—to tell the Native American story: the people, their legends, dance, and social interactions.” He currently resides in Prescott, Arizona.

Doug Hyde is represented by Doug Hyde Sculpture Studios, Prescott, Arizona.