FRITZ SCHOLDER (1937 - 2005) 

Represented by iconic gallerist, Elaine Horwich, beginning in the late 1960s, Fritz Scholder rose to legendary status. Of Luiseño Mission Indian and European heritage, Scholder is considered the leader of the New American Indian Art Movement. His work holds echoes of Abstract Expressionism, Surrealism and Pop Art, among other influential modern art movements. Breaking with romantic clichés of Native genre imagery, Scholder's unique fusion style is always provocative.

Early in his career, Scholder received grants from the Rockefeller, Whitney and Ford Foundations. After five years in Santa Fe, New Mexico, he left his teaching position at the famed Institute of American Indian Arts to be a full-time artist. Scholder added printmaking in lithography, etching and monotypes to his oeuvre, often creating works in series. In a single year, exhibitions of his work were seen in Japan, France, China, Germany and at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 2008, the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian mounted a career retrospective of his work, with exhibitions in both New York City and Washington, D.C.

 Fritz Scholder died in 2005 and since his death, interest in his art has continued to grow. In 2008, the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian mounted a career retrospective of his work, with exhibitions in both New York City and Washington, D.C.

Several books have been published on Fritz Scholder and the artist has been profiled in two documentaries for public television. 

*