Fritz Scholder, who died Thursday, was 25 years old before he openly
identified himself as American Indian.
Despite his vow to never paint anything "Indian," it was his depictions
of Indians in the late 1960s and early 1970s that launched him into the
stratosphere of the international art world.
Scholder, along with other contemporaries such as T.C. Cannon, is
credited with forever changing how American Indians were regarded in
contemporary art.
"He broke the mold for Indian style. It was not the old romantic
paintings. He's the one that really set the stage," said James McGrath, a
retired art director for Santa Fe's Institute of American Indian Arts.
“Thank
you dear Fritz. Your spirit is still with us and you left us an
extraordinary body of work that portrayed the mystery of life at its best
and most beautiful, at its worst and most painful. You showed us the
humorous and absurd, love and passion in its darkest and brightest moments.
Yes, you felt it all. “Now, rest in peace.”
David Witt,
curator at the Harwood Art Museum in Taos, New Mexico
Western Graphics Workshop, Inc.
