‘Super Indian’ series is riveting

Brace yourself as you enter the first gallery of the new “Super Indian: Fritz Scholder 1967-1980” exhibit. Scholder’s large figures may look you right in the eye, demanding that you pay attention. The stern “Indian No. 1,” which started his Indian series, is in the first gallery waiting –; painted in bright colors, as are a majority of the 40-some works in this haunting new show. It opened on Oct. 4 and runs until Jan. 17, 2016, at the Denver Art Museum. It is located on level three of the Hamilton Building.

Scholder (1937-2005) was one-quarter Luiseno (a California tribe) and claimed he was not an American Indian artist –; and in the sense of the popular Santa Fe style idealized Indian art of the 1960s, he was not.

“He claimed his art was not political, but he polarized the art world. For every position he took, he also explored the opposite perspective,” said John Lukavic, curator of Native Arts, who curated “Super Indian.”

The painter, who traveled to England and Europe as well as the U.S., was influenced by abstract expressionists such as Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline, as well as painters such as Francis Bacon, Francisco Goya and Paul Gauguin, according to Lukavic, who also said, “this artist was first and foremost a colorist who used figurative art to test the limits of what art can express.”

The namesake painting, “Super Indian No. 2,” is a hulking, tired-looking buffalo dancer who is taking a break with a strawberry ice cream cone in hand –; painted in 1971.

During the period when Scholder was creating his Indian series, he continued to work in lithography, especially after Tamarind Workshop moved from Los Angeles to Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Denver Art Museum owns 44 of those and about 10 are included in “Super Indian,” including the highly colored “Indian at the Lake” (1977).

Nine Scholder paintings are promised gifts from Vicki and Kent Logan, who have been most generous to the DAM over the years.

Some images are humorous, such as the lithograph, “Indians With Umbrellas.” Some are grotesque, such as “Portrait of a Massacred Indian.”

There are sociopolitical statements such as “Drunken Indian No. 2” and “Indian at a Bar” and more abstract images such as “Taos Pueblo.” As his paintings grew darker, sales slowed down after a run of sold-out exhibits. The brushwork throughout is textured and rich.

Lukavic writes about themes Scholder explored: his early Indian series, his pop art sensibility, his psychological portraiture, his exploration of the dark, mysterious and morbid, and his treatment of stereotypes and representation.

The large “Dartmouth Portrait No. 14” (1973) spins off Edward Curtis, who made Indians dress up as he thought they should and painted their portraits. This slouching man with a turned-down mouth and an animal headdress is a stunning, brightly colored example of that kind of send-up.

Walk through the galleries more than once because impressions will change as one absorbs more details of these intense images. Better yet, return a week later to revisit.

The museum’s gift shop has a nicely designed, colorful catalog of the show for those who will enjoy dwelling on these astonishing paintings at greater length at home.

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