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Graphics programming "in the 90s" encompasses a pretty wide range.

You had raw access to things like VGA cards and then different tricks per each individual card when it came to things like SVGA

You had a few things like UniVBE that tried to create a common platform for VESA cards to be used

Meanwhile, you had things like video drivers for Windows, usually basic 2D functionality:

In the mid-90's we started getting 3D hardware like 3Dfx and Rendition cards, they each had their proprietary interfaces.

And then finally, the 3D hardware was adopted by standards like OpenGL and DirectX.