Ted De Grazia

Ted De Grazia was an American impressionist, western-pop painter, sculptor, and lithographer. Self-described as "the world's most reproduced artist", DeGrazia is known for his pastel images of Native American children of the American Southwest and other Western scenes. In the early 1940s he studied under Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, assisting with murals at the Palacio Nacional and the Hospital de Jesus. The two artists sponsored an exhibit of his paintings at Palacio de Bellas Artes and the young artist was featured in Mexico City's Hoy Magazine. He returned to the University of Arizona, studying under Katherine Kitt where he received degrees in art and music. DeGrazia's work first appeared in Arizona Highways magazine in 1941. His designs have appeared on lithographs, collector plates, greeting cards, and in a series of Goebel figurines made by the same company that is famous for its Hummel figurines. In 1976, Degrazia engaged in a protest against inheritance taxes based on assessed market values of his work. The artist claimed the U.S. Internal Revenue Service rulings made him "a millionaire on paper and my heirs will have to pay taxes for which there is no money." In his well- publicized protest, Degrazia rode horseback into the Superstition Mountains and burned 100 of his paintings. http://degrazia.org