On the Work of a Contemporary American Indian Painter

Leonardo

On the Work of a Contemporary American Indian PainterAuthor(s): Fritz ScholderSource: Leonardo, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Spring, 1973), pp. 109-112Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1572685 .

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Leonardo, Vol. 6, pp. 109-112. Pergamon Press 1973. Printed in Great Britain

ON THE WORK OF A CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN INDIAN PAINTER

Fritz Scholder*

Abstract-The author is a painter whose subjects are generally the contemporary American Indian painted in an expressionistic style. Part Luiseio Indian himself he describes his childhood, art education and career in the American Southwest. Many of the personages in his portraits show intense emotion or horror and he gives his reasonsfor this. He discusses his concern with color and with simple but effective compositions. His plans for work in ceramics, sculpture and film making are outlined.

I.

I have been called a 'New Indian' painter [1-3]. That is correct if it means I am an Indian of today, who is proud of his heritage, one who is willing to participate fully in modern society but is also desirous of identifying with his people's heritage.

The New Indians know they must become educated, in order both to function in White Society and to comprehend fully the exciting rich Indian culture of the past. The Indians' lot since the coming of Europeans to America has been very distressing. One has only to visit Gallup, New Mexico, the center of the Navajo reservation, to witness human degradation due to the denial of civil and human rights. Drunkenness is often the result. I do not believe that many of the older derelicts can be saved, since the Navajos, particularly, are sus- picious of efforts to change their way of life. Most of the Indians' routine activities have religious over- tones expressed with keen aesthetic sensitivity in songs, dances, stories, body ornamentation, dress and social relationships. One must remember that the cultures of the various Indian peoples differ very greatly. Between Sioux and Seminole there is very little similarity at all. The languages differ even among the neighboring tribes of the Great Plains of the American Mid-West. The differences between tribes are so great that it even does not seem sensible to me to call all these peoples 'Indians'. Some Indians are returning to their tribes but most try to function as Indians in the cities. Since there are still many legal battles, especially over land ownership, quite a few Indians are becoming lawyers. It is not equal opportunity and total integration (the goal of many Blacks in America) that the Indian wants but the liberty to maintain his own culture. Also he is

* Artist living at Galisteo, New Mexico, U.S.A. (Received 9 August 1972.)

investigating his own history and is about to rewrite the story of the Wild West not omitting the butchery done to the Indian by the White.

I was born in 1937 in Breckenridge, Minnesota. However, my family lived at Wahpeton, North Dakota, a small town with the campus of an Indian school nearby. My father, who is part Luisefio Mission Indian, worked for the American Bureau of Indian Affairs. Generations ago, the Mission Indians were the ones who were chained as slaves to build mission churches in California. There are not many Mission Indians today. My father learned to be ashamed of his heritage when he attended Indian schools and he accepted, without rancor, to live as a White. That is what he wanted for his children and that is why he sent us to White schools. In recent years my father's attitude has changed and he has done research on tribal history. He has recorded songs and legends that my grandmother taught him. My great hope is to buy back from a private owner the land that once was assigned to my grandmother as her share of Luisenio land.

II.

It was in secondary school in Pierre, South Dakota that I decided to try to make my living as a painter. The art teacher at this school was a professional Indian artist, well known in South Dakota and in other Indian art circles. Oscar Howe, the painter now at the University of South Dakota, had a major influence on my development. He was very excited about the contemporary art he had seen while in Paris during his World War II military service. He told us about his reactions to it, however, we felt that he had not really understood the works. Nevertheless, I made cubistic paintings in his fashion for a while and he instilled in me a realization that art could be exciting and serious,

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that it was much more than painting pretty pictures. It was through him that I learned about the possi- bility of expressing one's individuality.

I left the school because my family moved to Wisconsin. As a matter of fact my father's work caused us to move frequently. I entered Wisconsin State University where I was trained in art funda- mentals and in Bauhaus disciplines but I was not content. I went to a summer art camp of the Univer- sity of Kansas, which broadened my grasp of the significance of art. Then, I had a great stroke of luck-we moved to California, where I felt freer to try new ideas. It was my greatest fortune to have Wayne Thiebaud [4] as a teacher at Sacramento City College. I learned abstract-expressionist techniques from him and also some notions of Pop art. At the time I was also especially influenced by the works of Nathan Oliviera and of Francis Bacon. I believe that Bacon is one of the most important living painters. Like him, I paint monsters (Figs. 1 and 2 (cf. color plate)).

In 1961, I became associated with the Rockefeller Institute Project at the University of Arizona, which had a program for Indian artists designed to expose them to past and present art and to explore new teaching methods in art. Students were bombarded with all kinds of films, books and music. The students made both sophisticated and primitive types of Indian paintings. While on the Rockefeller Institute Project, I had been encouraged by friends at the University to pursue the MFA (Master of Fine Arts) degree. This was financially possible because I was on a John Hay Whitney Fellowship. After I received the MFA in 1964, I went to the Institute of Indian Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, then recently opened by the United States Department of the Interior, with the objective of making Indian art students more secure as individuals. The Institute had fine teachers and was well equipped. After serving for five years as an instructor in advanced painting and in art history, I resigned in 1969 in protest against a downhill trend following a change in administration.

II.

While at the Institute I began to use the Indian as subject in my paintings, a practice that I have continued. But my work startled many people because I, part-Indian, treated the Indian differently, not as the 'noble savage' endlessly portrayed by White painters, and also because my technique was non-Indian (my work was not flat and decorative). I felt it to be a compliment when I was told that I had destroyed the traditional style of Indian art, for I was doing what I thought had to be done.

It seemed strange to me that there were taboos on the subject matter such as massacres, Indians holding cans of beer, Indians with cats. I believe that no one has ever before made a painting of an Indian with a cat, even though Indians love cats. Many disapprove of my painting of an Indian in a

Fig. 1. 'Insane Warrior', acrylic paint on canvas, 80 x 68 in., 1972.

They miss my point. I actually saw a buffalo dancer eating an ice cream cone between performances at the big spring dance at Santa Domingo Pueblo. I wanted to depict the strange paradox of a deeply religious animal dancer, whose dancing tradition goes back hundreds of years, eating ice cream bought at a White man's food concession in Pueblo grounds. It could only happen in the 20th century.

People say that I must hate Indians since I some- times paint them as monsters (Fig. 1). But I paint what I see, faces reflecting the torment in the minds of Indians today, torment resulting from the

buffalo headdress and full buffalo dance regalia because he is shown holding an ice cream cone.

110

Fig. 3. 'Sioux and Horse', acrylic paint on canvas, 12 x 12 in., 1972.



A Contemporary American Indian Painter

Fig. 5. 'Arapahoe Feather Fan', acrylic paint on canvas, 30 x 40 in., 1972.

Fig. 4. 'Screaming Artist', lithograph, 30 x 22 in., 1971.

impositions on them of contemporary American society. I feel it should be brought out clearly to those who take an interest in art. Also, I want to help the Indian to know himself. This is essential if he wishes to be free. And so, I have painted a grinning Indian with eagle feathers and tomahawk wearing the Star-Spangled Banner draped over his shoulder like a toga. And there is the painting of an Indian with sunglasses and large brimmed hat at a bar drinking beer. Then, my painting called 'Indian and Rhinoceros' has an Indian in full dress with a peace pipe posing with an ungainly rhinoceros in front of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. My point, I believe, is obvious.

I have made several series of paintings on the subject of Indians, which can be classified as follows: Monster Indians (Fig. 1), present-day Indians (Fig. 2), cowboy-type Indians (Fig. 3), Indian massacres and very gentle Indians. Some people wonder why I make pictures showing intense emotion, such as my self-portrait entitled 'Screaming Artist' (Fig. 4), while I am a rather reserved and gentle person. My answer is that my work is a catharsis for me. By putting my frustra- tions and turbulent emotions into my work, I release my tensions and become more gentle.

I prefer to live in attractively decorated surroundings. My homes have been decorated so that wherever the eye strays something nice will be seen. Nice clothing pleases me, too. But my studio is stark, containing only an easel, canvases and paints. I work alone and I attack the canvas in nearly a trance-like state. It is not difficult in these neutral

surroundings for me to get into the mood for painting a picture like 'Insane Warrior' when the canvas has already been painted orange (Fig. 1). When I finish a picture, I examine it critically. My first paintings were in the abstract-expressionist style and I made use of thick paint and splatters. They also showed Pop art influences. But I would like my work to be free from such connections. The paintings that I plan to undertake next may continue to include the monster element but they will be more abstract.

Figure 5 illustrates one of my more quiet pictures, 'Arapahoe Feather Fan'. It is a painting of an eagle's wing with a wrapped handle. Photographs taken of tribal chiefs at the turn of the century often show them holding big feathered fans. This is one of the many monochromatic paintings that I have been making recently. It has a green background, with burnt umber and burnt sienna in the drawing.

There are many Indian 'experts' and professional Indian lovers in the Santa Fe area who become annoyed when I do not paint in a way pleasing to them. Hopefully, I have helped young Indian painters to feel free to paint as they wish. I believe that most of them have understood my attitude. This was certainly true for the ones who were at the Institute when I was teaching there.

Although it always has been important for me to paint the New Indian, even though in a manner that has caused controversy, the real challenge of art, then and now, has been to make a good painting. Of course, the characteristics of a good painting are difficult to specify. Perhaps the most important aspect to me is that a painting must provide a unique visual experience to a viewer.

IV.

I certainly do not consider myself an innovator in style or technique. In a way, I am a painter of the Rennaissance because I am interested in the human figure and, until recently, I employ traditional materials. For a year, I have been painting with acrylics. Occasionally, I try other non-traditional

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Fritz Scholder

techniques, such as the use of aluminum foil as a support instead of convas.

I am primarily a colorist (Fig. 2, cf. color plate). Color relationships are very important to me. Undoubtedly, I am influenced by the colors of the American Southwest. I find the colors in Arizona are much harsher than in New Mexico, even in wintertime. I recently began using colored canvases (Figs. 1, 3, 5). If I start with an orange canvas, for example, the painting that I make is influenced by it. I now find white canvases a dull starting point for a painting. I enjoy placing one color next to another to see what happens. Color relationships present a challenge and help me to get a painting under way.

Since I began painting with acrylics, my paintings have become more monochromatic. Even though there is less variation in color, I feel that they are more colorful (Fig. 4). I like the handling properties of acrylics. They seem well adapted for one who works fast and furiously as I do, often on more than one canvas at a time. I want my paintings to give the impression of being spontaneous, not over- worked. I allow the paint to run and drip to give the viewer a feeling of paint. I like the sensuous feeling of drips on a painting.

Most of my paintings are of a single figure and I strive for simplicity in composition. Since the background is of one color, I am forced to focus interest on the figure. Actually, I find it easier to make a complicated canvas than one with a simple composition where every element must be effective.

My studies of the works of the Bauhaus artists and of the Japanese approach of learning about a brick before it is used in a building has influenced me as regards ideas of structure. Occasionally, I placed a figure at the side or at the bottom of a canvas for an emotional effect. But now I usually place it at the center. I find that my compositions are now stronger, possibly because I, personally, feel more secure.

V.

I am planning to do some ceramics in the near future, a medium that I studied at the University of Arizona. I want to make real 'funky' Indian glazes. Funk art is an art style that is roughly a mixture of

Dada and Pop art. It originated in San Francisco in the 1960's. Shidoni, the artists' cooperative in Tesuque, New Mexico, has asked me to make a group of unconventional or 'crazy' bronzes. Actually, I shall make only the waxes; they will do the casting.

I also have the desire to do film making. I should, for example, like to portray the simplicity and beauty of Indian life, the way it was and the way it could be again. The classic Japanese film 'The Island' focuses in detail on each mundane routine event in the day of a peasant couple-nothing more. Their feeling about time is similar to that of Indians. In my film I would pay attention to little things that absorb the interest of Indians, such as a view of grass blades swaying in the wind. Such scenes are not boring, if they are well done.

I am a very calculating person. I believe I know exactly where I am going. The time will come when I shall do sculpture and I know that I will make good sculpture-and, one day, I shall make a good film.

REFERENCES

1. L. E. Oxendine, 23 Contemporary Indian Artists, Art in America (July/August 1972).

2. J. J. Brody, Indian Painters and White Patrons (Albuquerque: Univ. of New Mexico Press, 1971).

3. R. H. Turk, Scholder's Indian (Flagstaff, Arizona: Northland Press, 1972).

4. W. L. G. Benson and D. H. R. Shearer, An interview with Wayne Thiebaud, Leonardo 2, 65 (1969).

L'aeuvre d'unpeintre indien d'Amerique contemporain

Resume-L'auteur est un peintre qui prend generalement pour theme l'Indien americain contemporain, et le peint dans un style expressioniste. Lui-meme a du sang indien Luisefio dans les veines; il decrit son enfance, son education artis- tique et sa carriere dans le Sud-Ouest des Etats- Unis. II explique pourquoi plusieurs des person- nages dont il fait le portrait manifestent des senti- ments intenses d'emotion ou d'horreur. Il rend compte de son interet pour la couleur et pour les compositions simples mais efficaces. I souligne egalement ses projets de travaux de ceramique, de sculpture et de cinema.

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Top left: Daniel Chompre, 'Tacuba, No. 009', Nylon rug, 4 x 6 ft and 6 x 9 ft, 1972. (Made by A. Leon Capel and Sons, Inc., Troy, North Carolina 27371, U.S.A.)

(Fig. 3, cf. page 142.)

Top right: Fritz Scholder, 'Screaming Indian, No. 2', oil on canvas, 60 x 42 in., 1970. (Fig. 2, cf. page 110.)

Bottom left: Figure of the comic-book character 'Vampirella'. Specially made from a mass-produced kit for the E. Paolozzi exhibition at The Tate Gallery, London,1971.

(Courtesy of E. Paolozzi, London.) (Photo: C. Ridley, London.) (Fig. 5, cf. page 100.)

Bottom right: Georgio Giusti, 'Nostalgia futurista', kinetic painting, 45 x 50 cm (depth 8 cm), 1969. (Fig. 3, cf. page 145.)


(Fig. 3, cf. page 142.)






(Fig. 3, cf. page 142.)






(Fig. 3, cf. page 142.)





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On the Work of a Contemporary American Indian Painter