NV to DC

Fritz Scholder was born in Breckenridge, Minnesota. Being part Luiseno, he was genetically connected to Native American culture, but he did not consider himself to be Native American since his family did not embrace the traditions of his Native American heritage. In 1979, he told the Washington Post; “I never thought about it until I got out of college. Now, of course, it’s very in to be Indian. But that’s only within the past ten years. However, every time I read about myself they call me an Indian artist…..I’m not an Indian…I’m simply a painter and a printmaker who has used the Indian as a major theme.”



Throughout his career he was artistically influenced by his teacher Oscar Howe, a Yanktonai modernist. In college he encountered the painter Wayne Thiebaud, who exposed him to pop art. After graduating in 1964 he taught painting at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe where he decided to paint Native Americans in a style he described as, “real, not red.”

Using real-life accounts as inspiration, he created controversial works which consistently fought against the tourism-driven themes that were typical of contemporary Native American art. Regarding the body of work that includes the Bicentennial Indian lithograph, he said, “The fact I have wrapped Indians in American flags is not a political statement, it’s what I’ve seen. At one point the Bureau of Indian Affairs shipped thousands of American flags out West and that’s what the Indians did with them.”

Morgen Henry, Marjorie Barrick Museum 2015