Fritz Scholder

“I’m interested in someone reacting to the work. And I don’t much care if they react negatively or positively, as long as they react. I felt it to be a compliment when I was told that I had destroyed the traditional style of Indian art.”

— Fritz Scholder

Fritz Scholder was born in 1937 in Breckenridge, Minnesota. While Scholder did not consider himself an Indian, he was regarded as a leader of the New American Indian Art Movement. His paintings attempted to represent the landscape and people of the Southwest without indulging in the romantic clichés of genre art on the Native themes. In time he created an extraordinary fusion of abstract expressionism, surrealism and Pop art to express his unique vision of the Southwestern scene and the Native experience.

In his work, he frequently showed the harsh, realistic side of Indians’ lives and deaths, including the affects of alcohol, but some of his depictions are humorous such as Indians on horseback carrying umbrellas. His brushwork is generally swift, and the tone often somber and surreal.

Fritz Scholder died February 10, 2005 at age 67 in Scottsdale, and a memorial service was held at the Heard Museum in Phoenix.