Scholder, Fritz

One of the most important American artists of the latter half of the 20th century, Fritz Scholder took his Native American heritage, held it up to the light of art, twisted and distorted and painted it, and made the world look anew. The dark imagery of skulls and skins has its origins in modernist practice–the minotaurs of Andre Masson and Pablo Picasso come to mind–but it is also rooted in Scholder’s interest in conveying the difficulties of contemporary Native American life and in the struggle to reconcile modernity with traditional practice.