Customer Reviews

Fritz Scholder: Indian/Not Indian

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Sometime in the 1970's, I saw a televised documentary on Fritz Scholder. In one scene the artist steps into into his studio where he selects a pre-stretched canvas and proceeds to paint in an explosion of creativity. The result was an image of an indian unlike any I had seen before. This was a raw, honest, direct and non-idealized impression of the American indian. It was unavoidably political even as it remained art of the highest order. This left an indelible impression. I have loved Scholder's work ever since.

"Fritz Scholder: Indian Not Indian, "by Lowery Stokes is a superb book. It is beautifully printed. The reproductions are well chosen and appropriate and the essays and commentary by: Kevin Gover, John Haworth, Lowery Stokes Sims, Paul Chaat Smith, Leslie Wasserberger, Richard W. Hill offer a well rounded perspective on the artist and his work.

Fritz Scholder was a man of contradictions with a dark and spiritual side. He was one quarter Luiseno indian, with a predominately German heritage. His father had been a Bureau of Indian Affairs administrator, but Fritz did not grow up on a reservation and for most of his career he did not paint indians or indian themes. Yet he became one of the first instructors at Institute of American Indian Arts, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

I highly recommend to anyone with an interest in Fritz Scholder, painting, American Indians, the southwest and New Mexico.

If you missed NMAI's show of the same name, Indian/Not Indian is an essential book to add to your art library. Lots of beautiful illustrations accompany the detailed and knowledgeable essays about Scholder, a uniquely modern and American painter.

As a committed portraitist for much of his career, Scholder's painting does not fit neatly into the story of heroic abstraction that often gets taught as "the" history of 20th c. painting in America. But the energetic brushwork and piercing intellect he brings to the canvas make his works profound, hilarious, and disturbing, often at the same time.

The essays and documentation in the book help us to understand Scholder's strange but unwavering commitment to sharing knowledge through teaching, to recasting the fate of the Native artist, and to creating a unique lexicon of his vision.