Fritz Scholder was born in Breckenridge, Minnesota. His father was part German, French and also Indian of the Luiseno tribe and worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, moving young Scholder and the rest of the family across the Western states for much of his childhood. Studying with Wayne Thiebaud, Scholder got his Bachelor of Arts and his Masters of Fine Arts degrees.
He spent many years teaching at the Institute of American Indian Arts but left in 1969 to devote all his time to painting. Scholder taught and practiced the philosophy of using Indian themes and translating them into modern paintings. He said "I believe that there is a new Indian art emerging. It will take many forms and will be vital. A merging of traditional subject matter with contemporary idiom will give us a truer statement of the Indian."
Scolder's style varied throughout his career. Always evolving as an artist his works ranged from abstract landscapes, cubist influence, and "pop" art portraits. He tried to break long standing clichés by doing a "pop" art series on an unconventional subject matter in which he sought to deconstruct romantic images of Native America. In 1969 he visited the Tate Modern and was greatly influenced by Francis Bacon. Soon Scholder was intertwining Bacon's style with his own creating an approach purely his own.
Scholder changed Native American art forever, as a painter, sculptor, teacher, and mentor. Scholder died on February 10, 2005 at his home in Scottsdale
Exhibited: Winter Invitational, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1961; American Indian Art, Edinburgh Art Festival and Berlin Festival, 1966; Indian Painting, Museum Bellas artes, Buenos Aires, 1967; Two American Painters, National Collection Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institute, 1972; Two American Painters, Madrid, Berlin, Bucharest, Belgrade, Ankara, Athens, London, 1972-72; Cordier and Ekstrom, New York City, 1970s.
Awards: Southwest Indian Project scholarship, Rockefeller Foundation, 1961-62; purchase award, Ford Foundation, 1962; Opportunity fellowship, John Hay Whitney Foundation, 1962-63
Works Held: Brooklyn Museum, Houston Museum of Fine Art; Phoenix Art Museum; San Diego Gallery of Fine Art; Dallas Museum of Fine Art; Museum New Mexico; DartmouthUniversity.
