Fritz Scholder, Bound Woman

Fritz Scholder was born in 1937 in Breckenridge, Minnesota and an enrolled member of the Luiseno tribe. As a high school student at Pierre, South Dakota, his teacher was Oscar Howe. In 1957, Scholder moved with his family to Sacramento, where he studied with Wayne Thiebaud. Thiebaud invited Scholder to join him, along with Greg Kondos and Peter Vandenberg in creating a cooperative gallery in Sacramento. Scholder’s first show received an exceptional review. Scholder’s next one man exhibition was at the Crocker Art Museum.

He met Cherokee designer, Lloyd Kiva New and studied with Hopi jeweler, Charles Loloma. After receiving a John Hay Whitney Fellowship, Scholder moved to Tucson and became a graduate assistant in the Fine Arts Department where he studied with Andrew Rush and Charles Littler. There, he met artists Max Cole, John Heric and Bruce McGrew. After graduating with an MFA Degree in 1964, Scholder accepted the position of instructor in Advanced Painting and Contemporary Art History at the newly formed Institute of American Indians Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Scholder has always worked in series of paintings. In 1967, his series on Native American representation, depicting the "real Indian," became an immediate controversy. Scholder was one of the first to paint Indians with American Flags, beer cans, and cats. His target was the loaded national cliché of the dominant culture.

Scholder's constant desire to explore, collect, travel and experience is undoubtedly the distinguishing feature of both his life and his art. Scholder is best known for his expressionist paintings that are in museum collections around the world. His style is well known for its distortions, explosive brushwork and vivid colors. (http://www.fritzscholder.com/)