Fritz Scholder (NY Times)
Hyfler/Rosner
to his artwork. I always like to do that, if possible, with
artists.
Fritz Scholder, Painter of American Indians, Dies at 67
By JOSHUA BROCKMAN
http://www.scholder.com/paintings01.html
http://www.bbhc.org/wgwa/scholder.cfm
http://www.windsorbetts.com/cgi-bin/artist.cgi?artist=Fritz%20Scholder
Fritz Scholder, an American expressionist painter and
sculptor whose "Indian" series of paintings in the 1960's
and 70's reimagined the depiction of Native Americans, died
on Thursday in Phoenix. He was 67 and lived in Scottsdale,
Ariz.
The cause was complications of diabetes, said his wife, Lisa
Markgraf Scholder.
Although best known for his paintings, Mr. Scholder produced
work in a variety of media - lithographs, photographs,
sculpture and books. His work is in dozens of museum
collections, including those of the Museum of Modern Art,
the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Bibliothèque
Nationale de France, the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture
Garden, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Much of Mr. Scholder's art exudes an air of mystery. His
paintings, which celebrate paint with drips, smears,
energetic brushwork and vivid underpainting, have been
described as symbolist or colorist. Abstract Expressionists
like de Kooning and Franz Kline informed his style, and the
influence of Francis Bacon, Richard Diebenkorn, Goya, Paul
Gauguin, Edvard Munch and Cy Twombly is also evident.
"Painting the Paradox" (1997), a documentary that was shown
on PBS, provides a glimpse into Mr. Scholder's world, which,
beginning in 1972, revolved around his adobe-walled compound
in Scottsdale, where he lived and produced series noteworthy
both for their subjects and for their titles, including
"Mystery Woman," "Monster Love," "Martyr" and "Shaman." His
favorite subject was women, and he approached this and other
subjects, including mortality and isolation, with renderings
of single and paired figures as well as skulls and
skeletons.
As a child he collected stamps and coins and was fascinated
by foreign cultures, especially ancient Egypt. Ultimately,
Mr. Scholder traveled to Egypt, Transylvania and other
exotic locales, accumulating artifacts and occult objects
that have figured prominently as props in his work. His
house included a skull room and he surrounded himself with
taxidermic creatures, including an 11-foot African lion and
a buffalo.
In a 2001 interview in The Times, Mr. Scholder, said he was
a "natural optimist, which might be surprising, because I
like the dark side of things." He regularly fashioned
self-portraits in different guises, including a buffalo and
a sphinx. His last, rendered in 2003, shows him seated with
an oxygen tube in his nose as a pool of blood accumulates on
the floor alongside a book and a photograph. In the
foreground, an Egyptian cat gazes up at him.
Born in Breckinridge, Minn., Fritz William Scholder was the
fifth Fritz in a family of primarily German ancestry. He was
one-quarter Native American (one of his grandmothers was
from the Luiseño tribe in California). He grew up in
Wahpeton, N.D., and in Pierre, S.D. In 1957, he studied at
Sacramento City College with Wayne Thiebaud, who arranged
for his first one-man show.
He received a B.A. from Sacramento State College in 1960 and
an M.F.A. from the University of Arizona in 1964. Soon
after, Lloyd Kiva New, the arts director at the newly
established Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe,
N.M., invited Mr. Scholder to join the faculty.
In 1967, while teaching painting at the institute, he began
his "Indian" series. His innovative approach, based on
research and observation, was a radical departure from
traditional, sentimental renderings of mythic Indians. He
said he was the first artist to paint an Indian wrapped in
an American flag, an image that still resonates. It is based
on 19th-century prison photographs of Indians dressed in
surplus flags in lieu of their confiscated tribal regalia.
In an essay for the book "Fritz Scholder: Paintings," Frank
Goodyear, director of the Heard Museum in Phoenix, wrote of
the "Indian" series: "Scholder recognized that it was time
for a painter of Indians to develop a new idiom in Indian
painting. That idiom was best expressed in his words 'Real,
not Red.' "
In 2001, the Institute of American Indian Arts dedicated a
museum gallery in Mr. Scholder's honor. His awards include
fellowships from the Ford, Rockefeller and Whitney
foundations.
He is survived by his wife, Lisa; a son, Fritz William
Scholder VI of Tampa, Fla.; a grandson, Fritz VII; and two
sisters, Sondra Clark of Los Altos, Calif., and Kristina
Anderson of San Leandro, Calif. Cognizant of his artistic
afterlife, Mr. Scholder retained favorite works from his
many series and took pride in designing his own catalogs,
posters and postcards, which patrons and admirers prized.
"Documentation is very important because it lasts longer
than any show," he said.
His creative ritual often involved entering his studio late
at night and painting to music. "It's a turn-on," Mr.
Scholder said. "But it's also terribly serious, because it
is in a way one of the universal rituals of making a mark on
something that will last longer than you."