Fritz Scholder
Luiseño, (1937-2005), 'Blood Skull #8,' 2001, artist's blood on paper, signed along the bottom edge, titled, dated and inscribed on the backing paper verso.
sight 5 3/8in x 3 1/4in, paper (per the artist's notations) 6in x 4in
Footnotes:
In Joshua Brockman's 2008 story for NPR, 'Indian or Not? Fritz Scholder's Art and Identity,' Scholder's widow, Lisa Markgraf Scholder, discusses the inception of the 'Blood Skull' series, which was spurred by the artist's years-long battle with diabetes: 'This was a time of illness being taken very seriously and lots of blood work... and in between blood tests, Fritz would always connive his doctors into giving him extra vials so that he might take them home and experiment.' (All Things Considered, 24 December, 2008, 4:07pm)

While the use of Diet Coke is very likely a reference to efforts to mitigate the very disease that required Scholder to submit to so many blood tests, the paper on which the Blood Skulls are drawn also serves as a commentary in and of itself. While the header and footer of the stationery is cropped out of the present work by the matting, Scholder's blood skulls were painted on motel stationery. In a blog post about the 2009 exhibition 'Fritz Scholder: Indian/Not Indian,' at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., (where the Blood Skulls on view were presented without their matting) Michael K. Johnson, a Professor of English at the University of Maine at Farmington points out that: 'at the bottom of the page is printed 'For Reservations,' followed by a 1-800 number, and the double meaning of the word 'reservations' for a Native artist shifts the meaning of the drawing from a meditation on personal mortality toward social critique.' (The Official Blog of the Western Literature Association, 11 March, 2021, westlit.wordpress.com/)

Provenance
Property from the Estate of Dr. Raymond C. Herold
For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com

Framed: 14 1/2in x 12in.

In apparently good condition; not examined out of the frame (artist's inscription and title is on the paper backing). Minor rippling to the paper.