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Circa: 1975
Condition: Fine
Size: 11 3/4 " X 14 1/4"
Country of Origin: United States
This unusual print, done by artist Ted (Ettore) DeGrazia, is not one that I have found in my research. I believe it is of the Witch (note long scary fingernails on main figure) that 'Eetoi' and his people must keep dancing all night.
It is double sided with a drawing on the reverse and the story of Eetoi, which I believe is a story of the Papago (Tohono O'odom) people.
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I think the art was originally from a book since there are numbers 35 and 36 on each side.
This piece was purchased at the DeGrazia Studio in 1978 and was signed by Ted DeGrazia 1978 on the left, therefore this is a double-signed print, one on the right printed and one on the left in black original ink. For a reproduction to have value, it must also be hand-signed, or double-signed.
DeGrazia was born in 1909 in the eastern Arizona mining camp of Morenci. The Midnight Sketch's were DeGrazia's defense again insomnia; he did hundreds of those, with little handwritten captions on the bottom.
After his early paintings were first published in Arizona Highways magazine, DeGrazia traveled to Mexico City to work with mural masters Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco, who sponsored a solo exhibition of DeGrazia's artwork at the prestigious Palacio de Bellas Artes in 1942.
As the value of his original artwork soared, his fame and finances flourished.
To protest inheritance taxes on works of art, DeGrazia hauled about 100 of his paintings (about $1 million worth ) on horseback to the Superstition Mountains near Phoenix and set them ablaze in 1976. This infamous event was reported in such publications as The Wall Street Journal and People magazine, becoming part of DeGrazia's legend before his death in 1982.
A piece of DeGrazia artwork is to be cherished.
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