Fritz Scholder (Luiseño) - Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Morning Session New York Wednesday, May 15, 2024 | Phillips

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  • Fritz Scholder’s Super Kachina, 1976 combines the influences of Pop Art and Abstract Expressionism while depicting a distinctly Native American subject—the spiritual being of a “kachina.” While consistently referencing Native American images and themes throughout his practice, Scholder deviated from the romanticized clichés of Native and Southwestern imagery, elevating the status of Native Americans in art in the present work. Though enrolled in the Luiseño tribe, concentrated in southern California, the artist considered himself to be equal parts German, French and Luiseño, a combination which gave him an interesting perspective that set him apart from other American painters.

     

    Taught by renowned Sioux artist Oscar Howe in high school, Scholder moved to Sacramento in 1957 to study with leading Bay Area Figurative artist, Wayne Thiebaud. After exceptional reviews of his first two solo exhibitions at Thiebaud’s cooperative gallery and the Crocker Art Museum, both in Sacramento, Scholder was invited to participate in the Rockefeller Indian Arts Projects at the University of Arizona, graduating with a Master of Fine Arts in 1964. After accepting a teaching position at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe the same year, Scholder developed his signature painting style, which focused on reconstructing the narrative surrounding Native American bodies and voices. Today, his works are in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. Scholder’s work was recently the subject of a two-venue retrospective held by the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C., and the National Museum of the American Indian’s George Gustav Heye Center, New York, reflecting an increased visibility of Native American artists and exhibitions by major museum collections in recent years.

    “I’m interested in someone reacting to the work. And I don’t much care if they react negatively or positively, as long as they react. I felt it to be a compliment when I was told that I had destroyed the traditional style of Indian art.”
    —Fritz Scholder

    Imbuing his work with his unique perspective, Scholder was interested in exposing the realistic side of Native American life and death. In his paintings, he explored issues such as alcoholism, unemployment, cultural clashes and spirituality. As noted by the artist, “what I’ve always tried to do... is knock down this great national guilt.”i Indeed, in creating images that exaggerate typical depictions of Native Americans, Super Kachina elevates quintessential Native American imagery on a grand, portrait scale. The present work represents a kachina – a spiritual being in Native American culture that can be embodied through a doll, or a performer in a decorative mask. To signify the importance of the symbol within Native American life, Scholder presents the kachina on a large scale, measuring over seven feet tall, engulfing viewers and dissolving the mystification of Indigenous ideologies and imagery.

     

    Francis Bacon, Untitled (Head), 1948, Private Collection. Artwork: © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved / DACS, London / ARS, NY 2024 

    In addition to the influences from his Luiseño background, Scholder also paid homage to his art historical predecessors throughout his work. The bright yellow background of Super Kachina imbues a distinct Pop sensibility, while the hurried brushstrokes of the kachina’s clothes and features recall the gestural tendencies of the Abstract Expressionist movement. In addition to Thiebaud, Scholder also found influence in the art of Francis Bacon, whose Surrealist distortions of figures encouraged Scholder to experiment with form and composition. As such, Scholder’s work escapes the narrow categorization of his art as simply Native American, breaking the boundaries of typical indigenous art and adding a fresh perspective to the genre.

     

    iFritz Scholder, quoted in Paul Karlstrom, “Oral history interview with Fritz Scholder, 1995 March 3–30,” Smithsonian Archives of American Art, March 3–30, 1995, online.

    • Condition Report

    • Description

      View our Conditions of Sale.

    • Provenance

      Elaine Horwitch Galleries, Scottsdale
      Private Collection, Wyoming
      Santa Fe Art Auction, November 13, 2004, lot 87
      Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

    • Exhibited

      Boise Gallery of Art, Fritz Scholder: Paintings and Prints, 1966–1978, April 8–May 6, 1979

144

Super Kachina

signed "Scholder" lower left; titled and dated "-SUPER KACHINA-1976-" on the overlap
acrylic on canvas
80 x 68 in. (203.2 x 172.7 cm)
Painted in 1976.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$150,000 - 200,000 

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Contact Specialist

Annie Dolan
NY Head of Auctions and Specialist, Head of Sale, Morning Session
212 940 1288
adolan@phillips.com

Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Morning Session

New York Auction 15 May 2024