SEMINAL SCHOLDER
Early work by contemporary Native American artist Fritz Scholder
This exhibition features major works from Fritz Scholder’s most celebrated and influential artistic period - the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. During this transformational era in Contemporary Native American Art, Fritz Scholder relentlessly challenged the stereotype of the American Indian. His most iconic works deal with dominant Colonial perceptions and misunderstandings of cultural identity. Arguably the most critical artist of the newly emerged American Indian Art Movement of the 1960s, Scholder was a breakthrough force that stood apart from all of his peers as a person that could bring the conversation of the “real” authentic Indian to the contemporary art dialogue at large.
Emboldened with an unapologetic creative voice, Fritz Scholder is celebrated for having developed a critical channel for discourse.
THE ARTWORK
New Mexico #42
1966
Leading into Fritz Scholder’s famed “Indian Series”, the artist explored abstraction depicting the natural world. New Mexico # 42 is part of a sophisticated, desirable and finite body of work that Scholder began after moving to Santa Fe, NM to begin teaching at IAIA (Institute of American Indian Arts) in 1964.
The stark topography and crisp environment of the Southwest provided a rich creative reservoir for Scholder. He was not alone. New Mexico served as an artistic refuge for many American art legends in the 20th century. Georgia O’Keeffe, Agnes Martin, Marsden Hartley, Richard Diebenkorn and Raymond Jonson were just a few to have discovered immense solitude and inspiration within the cascading vistas of the ‘Land of Enchantment’.
Scholder's abstract artworks evoke a sense of visceral dynamism, blending vibrant colors and bold shapes that transcend the confines of traditional representation. With gestural brushstrokes and a keen eye for composition, Scholder captured the essence of the natural world while imbuing it with a surreal, otherworldly quality. His landscapes are not mere reflections of reality but rather interpretations of the emotional and psychological landscapes within.
Stripes #1
1969
As much as Scholder's exploration of abstraction reflects his deep appreciation for the natural world and his desire to connect with the elemental forces that shape it, they also have a direct connection to Southwestern Indigenous blankets. Like the Navajo weavers who infuse their textiles with symbolic meaning and spiritual significance, Scholder imbues his paintings with a sense of reverence for the land and its enduring presence in the collective consciousness.
Early Navajo blankets, meant to be worn, allow their horizontal bands to extend beyond the borders - embracing the limitless horizon. Scholder mimics this powerful design decision. His abstract landscapes become meditations on the universe and the interconnectedness of all living things. These abstract landscapes invite viewers to contemplate and expand their own place within the vast tapestry of existence.
Indians in Washington D.C.
1969
Fritz Scholder studied under Oscar Howe and developed a keen sense of tradition and stylistic individuality. He also studied under Wayne Thiebaud and developed a strong familiarity with pop art, contemporary practice and world art history. Scholder’s work was fresh, bold and cutting edge.
Fritz Scholder is celebrated for challenging the pre-existing Eurocentric portrayal of Native Americans. Indians in Washington, D.C. is likely sourced from, or modeled after, the work of seminal photographers such as Mathew Brady and his straight-forward delegation photos, or Edward Curtis and his objectified romanticizations.
In this masterpiece, Scholder depicts three Indigenous men dressed in a blend of Western attire and traditional garb. The figures are pressed between two vertical green bands. Their faces reveal an unnerving distortion, alluding to generations of horrific cultural trauma. The figures are wrought with emotion while transcending time and place to reveal a steadfast perseverance. Proudly waiting in a suspended setting, the men appear to be “stuck” between these two worlds. Why are they here? Have they traveled to advocate on behalf of their community? These warriors and elders have been forced to accommodate a western white society, yet they represent their cultural heritage in a visual act of resistance.
This work is a powerful and poignant commentary on history and the cultural, sociological, geographical and political manifestations that have been imposed upon Native populations. Simultaneously, Fritz Scholder celebrates Native identity and advocates for Native sovereignty.
Indian, After Bacon
1969
Fritz Scholder, among the most acclaimed Native American artists of the 20th century, often referred to Francis Bacon as a great artistic inspiration. Hailing from a creative generation impacted by the British icon, Scholder’s work is infused with similar stylistic elements and emotional truths.
Both artists were successful in creating a visceral intensity that abrasively confronts the viewer. They explored darker aspects of the human psyche and themes of existential angst, mortality, and the human condition. In contrast, Scholder’s work extends beyond this individual experience and invites discourse to vast Indigenous historical and cultural trauma.
Indian, After Bacon is clear, precise and direct. It is a painting that pays great homage to one of Scholder’s most valued artistic inspirations. At the same time, it is an artwork that is innately Native. This frightfully compelling painting is a seminal example in Scholder’s acclaimed “Indian” series.
Squatting Indian
1969
While Francis Bacon's work may have illuminated a point of reference or inspiration for the artist, Scholder’s practice was shaped by a wide range of cultural, personal, and historical factors. His Native American heritage combined with contemporary influences, his experiences teaching at IAIA and living in New Mexico provided ample resources for reflection and creative output.
Scholder's painterly palette was inevitably influenced by the subdued hues of the Southwestern landscape. He used color not merely for its representational value but as a means of expressing deeper psychological states.
Squatting Indian depicts a figure hunched over, naked and vulnerable. He has war paint strewn across his face and a full feather headdress billowing off of the canvas. The figure has lashes across his back and he is physically compressed into a small quadrant, not powerful and expansive. The figure’s gaze is off toward the void, imagining something perhaps lost. The squatting posture, empty color fields and dense emotive gaze reveal a moment of mental turmoil. Distorted and fragmented forms further convey this sense of inner conflict and disquiet.
As an adept colorist, Scholder manipulated these bold fields to help provoke a visceral response. He also employed expressive brushwork to further convey the emotional weight of his subjects, forcing his audience to bear witness to and confront uncomfortable realities.
Untitled (Indian with Parasol)
Circa 1970
Through the dichotomy between tradition and modernism, Fritz Scholder wrought a completely unique artistic voice and vision. His most sought after artworks contain elements of emotional intensity, compositional balance, minimal lines and distinct mark-making.
In this captivating work, we see Scholder’s masterful skill as a draftsperson. A single arched line, a gesture, suggests the figure in place and space - perhaps sitting atop a hill overlooking the past, present and future. The haunting face, traditional hair braids and western-style top hat all lay beneath the parasol, which serves to protect the figure.
Scholder wields an elegant simplicity to ground his figure. A triumph of minimalism.
Portrait of a Massacred Indian
1972
Portrait of a Massacred Indian is a powerful and iconic image with strong commentary on the dramatized perception of Native Americans. The figure is in full battle regalia, with a powerful bow or elongated calumet pipestem laid across his lap. A pipebag suspended from his belt further emphasizes the dichotomy between war and peace.
The irony and most striking impact of this image is reinforced by the title. The warrior is being struck down in the most violent of ways. The scene is one witnessed countless times in books, tales and film. It is a Hollywood portrayal of the Native American.
Scholder empowers Portrait of a Massacred Indian with irony. His warrior, in fact, is attacking the viewer. We are being knocked senseless by the very image that has been perpetuated through society. Scholder is challenging the audience to wake up. The splattered face and distorted body reveal the emotion, anguish and torment that is the reality of the Native American plight. The bright pink and yellow color fields juxtapose this violent energy with levity, balance and a brilliant entry point to important cultural discourse. And herein lies the artist’s greatest contribution to art history, contemporary society, and the countless Native American creatives to follow.
This artwork is a tour-de-force of emotion, technique, individuality, cultural understanding and misunderstanding. Portrait of a Massacred Indian is among the most published and powerful artworks created during the period of Fritz Scholder’s seminal “Indian Paintings” of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.
Portrait of a Massacred Indian No. 3
1973
Portrait of a Massacred Indian No. 3 is perhaps the most striking of Fritz Scholder’s lithographic works, created at Editions Press in San Francisco with Master Printer Lloyd Baggs.
Paws
1967
Playful and intimate, this early work exemplifies Fritz Scholder’s sophistication and expansive artistic process. “Paws”, likely the name of a cherished pet, illustrates an abstracted feline with two sets of eyes surrounding a black triangular nose. The success of this painting is amplified by the manner in which Scholder handled the whiskers. They expand beyond the canvas onto the wooden superstructure. The frame is not a frame, it is a thoughtful extension of this mixed media painting.
Aruba Tongue
Circa 1970
Although Fritz Scholder is best known for his paintings and lithographs, he also worked in sculpture, photography and other media like this complex collage. The artwork contains overlapping sheets of abstracted paint, pastel and graphite. There is a photograph, rotated ninety degrees, of a boat anchored in Aruba. Horizontally adhered to the center of the artwork is what appears to be the cover of a ledger book (referencing early Indigenous painting). A pale colored paper with dark and elongated face sits atop the ledger cover while a red painted wooden board (recycled from a ceremonial mask) falls below forming the “tongue”.
Aruba Tongue is prominently featured in the book on Fritz Scholder, “Remnants of Memory”.
Untitled (Blood Skull)
Circa 2000
The final artwork in this exhibition is not from the 1960’s or the 1970’s but it is a seminal artwork nonetheless.
This small yet powerful painting of a skull is literally created from Fritz Scholder’s own blood. The artist suffered from diabetes and before his death in 2005, he spent time traveling to doctors who would monitor his health. Before leaving the hospital, Scholder would convince the various nurses to slip him a vile of his own blood. Later he would draw small paintings of skulls on hotel stationary with a mixture of this very blood and diet coke.
Scholder had a lifelong fascination with the afterlife and mysticism. These “Blood Drawings” were clearly an artistic contemplation of his impending mortality. However, nothing is as simple as it seems when it comes to Scholder’s work. The paper was a conscious choice - motel stationary. At the bottom of the page is printed “For Reservations Call 1-800 HOTELS 1”. The word play shifts the intent. The word “reservations”, a meditation on personal mortality, expands into a dense cultural and historical critique.
The artworks in this show reflect a profound historical moment.
Fritz Scholder was instrumental in giving rise to the creative fluorescence that we are witnessing today.