DE GRAZIA AND HIS CHILDREN

DE GRAZIA'S CHILDREN

ED DE GRAZIA'S PAINTINGS ARE IN PRINTS, LITHOGRAPHS, and books. They decorate greeting cards, collector plates, wind-bells, and even refrigerator magnets.

By the time he died in 1982 at age 73, Arizona's own Ettore "Ted" De Grazia was internationally known for his vivid depictions of the American Southwest. He also was one of the most reproduced artists in the world and a millionaire. Not bad for a youngster born in the mining town of Morenci in 1909, while Arizona was still a raw Territory.

De Grazia's pictures have graced the pages of this magazine since 1941, when he was "discovered" by Arizona Highways Editor Raymond Carlson. Back then, despite De Grazia's successful exhibition in Mexico City, Carlson was the only person in Arizona interested in his art, says Gary Avey, editor of Highways from 1979 to 1983 and now editor and publisher of Native Peoples Magazine. "Carlson couldn't afford to buy De Grazia's work," says Avey, "but he could publish it in the magazine. And the rest, as they say, is history."

Critics, some of whom remained permanently tweaked by De Grazia's populist appeal, called him a desert maverick and a sophisticated primitive. This was, after all, the tax-plagued artist who protested in 1976 by setting fire to $1.5 million worth of his own paintings. And his emotional work does grip the senses, holding on and refusing to let go.

As a youngster in Morenci, De Grazia knew he didn't want to be a miner, but he was fascinated by the bright hues of the minerals wrested from the Earth, and on long walks he scooped up handfuls of clay that he molded into figures and baked in his mother's oven.

Years later as a young artist, De Grazia attracted the attention of famed Mexican painters Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco, who wisely advised him to paint only what he knew.

What De Grazia knew and loved deep in his bones was the land and the people of Arizona and Old Mexico. Through his art, with its zest, its sensitivity, its ebullient wash of color, he continues to share that knowledge and affection with the world.