Fritz Scholder

Fritz Scholder (1937-2005), born Fritz William Scholder V, is a Native American artist enrolled in the La Jolla Band of Luiseño Indians. He has worked as an artist creating paintings, monotypes, lithographs, and sculptures. I have mentioned him a few times in various Missives but never devoted one to him. Like so many who have been born of mixed blood, Native American and European, he made his choices; he did not want to be pigeonholeed, but his work relates to Indian issues.

He is generally considered the leader of the New American Indian Art Movement.

A major retrospective of Scholder’s work at the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in 2008 was titled “Indian/Not Indian”. Truman Lowe (Ho-Chunk), curator of contemporary art at the museum wrote, “Although one-quarter Luiseño (a California mission tribe), Scholder always insisted he was not American Indian any more than he was German or French, yet he became the most successful and highly regarded painter of Native Americans in U.S. history—a fact that raises the question of what ‘Indian art’ actually is”.

I like to relate my Missives to recent articles or events, and at this moment, there is an exhibition of Scholder’s works on paper at the LewAllen Galleries in Santa Fe, which will be on until June 7. All the images used here should be credited, “LewAllen Galleries and the Estate of Fritz Scholder”.

Most artists’ themes start out expressed on paper, with the immediacy of studies that develop into major works, making this exhibition particularly interesting to me.

Sholder’s self-portraits often grapple with issues of identity. He used his art to challenge the simplistic notion of "Indian" and to portray the complexities of his own mixed heritage. “Self Portrait in Roma” (1978), an etching and aquatint on paper from an edition of 50. shows an individual in classic, if somber, white man’s garb, with a questioning look on his face. The hand emerging from the white of his shirt holds what may be his etching tool.

Furthering the theme of complexity and stereotypes is his “Laughing Artist” (1974), an etching from an edition of 35. The image challenges stereotypical depictions of Native Americans wearing feathers and dancing or as solemn or tragic figures. Though from the and the not quite white coloring of the face you can infer that this is an Indian, but he still looks like anyone you might meet at a party.

“Indian at the Bar” (1970-71), lithograph in an edition of 75 from the “Indian Forever Suite” which consists of eight stone lithographs. The prominent Coors beer can held by the leering Indian, wearing dark glasses and a wide-brimmed hat, is clearly a comment on the alcoholism prevalent in the Indian population. Although many Native Americans object to the characterization, it was a subject Scholder depicted more than once.

My favorite print in the current show is “Indian Contemplating Columbus” (1991), an etching and aquatint on paper from an edition of 50. I like a slightly different title that it is known by better, "Native American Contemplating the Arrival of Columbus." The evocation of a faraway look in the face we cannot see of a figure identified by his moccasin and feathered headdress, I find haunting. How would things be if Columbus had not “discovered” America?!!!

It takes incredible talent and intellect for an artist to combine both sides of an issue so that his work tells the story. That is why I find Scholder’s work exciting, disturbing, and in the end, illuminating.