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Introduction
- University of Arizona Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
3 Introduction People expect an artist to do wild things, crazy things. I don’t want to disappoint them. —De Grazia1 Ted de Grazia once described himself as “not saint nor devil, but both.”2 There’s a lot of truth in that. Coming up with the real Ted De Grazia is a biographer’s nightmare . It’s a nightmare of the artist’s creation, since De Grazia protected his privacy as fiercely as he produced his paintings. His wife, Marion, may have helped him keep his life private, even after his death, by destroying material in the Gallery in the Sun’s archives that had potential, no matter how remote, to compromise her husband’s passion to remain inscrutable. Jennifer Potter, who was the Gallery in the Sun’s executive director during the 1990s, said that Marion shredded newspaper articles and photographs after his death. “I did manage to save some photos,” she said.3 De Grazia cooperated on two biographies, both coffee-table books that revealed little about his private life, thanks to his spoon-feeding the authors only what he wanted them to know. One of the authors, William Reed, called De Grazia an elusive character, both physically and spiritually—one who was hard to tie down for a major work on his life and thoughts. Reed titled his 1971 book De Grazia: The Irreverent Angel and described it as a literary portrait.4 Harry Redl wrote the other biography, The World of De Grazia, published in 1981. In addition, De Grazia kept in his folders several partially written, never-finished biographies that included handwritten comments in the margins, suggesting that he controlled what the authors wrote about him. 4 Introduction Who better to know him than his two wives and his paramour of eleven years? His first wife, Alexandra, wrote a brief memoir of their ten-year marriage. His second wife revealed little about their thirty-five-year marriage, while his lover wrote a 238-page tell-all book about their relationship, but only after De Grazia’s widow had died. In turn, De Grazia never said or wrote much about the three women closest to him. De Grazia always talked openly about his early years in Morenci and his time at the University of Arizona. But he rarely shared anything about his Bisbee days, and following that period in his life he focused on communicating only what he wanted people to know. This biography relies heavily on stories in newspapers, magazines, books, and relatively few personal papers, as well as a dozen interviews by the author and fifty oral histories. Most of those interviewed chose their words carefully, often declaring that they didn’t want to talk about some incidents in De Grazia’s life even as they hinted at womanizing, hard drinking, and carousing. De Grazia often told outrageous lies to writers for newspapers, magazines, and books, making it a struggle to sift through them for truth. Court documents are limited to the probate of his estate and two filings for divorce, only one of which was finalized. Yet it is possible to piece together a picture that sheds some light on De Grazia, whose art remains among the most often reproduced in the world. The purpose here is to get behind the myths to the real De Grazia. The author makes no pretense of judging his work. This is the story of an artist’s life and not his art, although that subject surely lurks on the periphery. Nor does this author want to leave you with the impression that he breached the high adobe wall of secrecy that De Grazia erected around himself. If one thing stands out, it’s his individualism. No one was quite like him, and he liked it that way. In fact, he thought more individualism in the world would be a good thing. “The individual is gone,” he said in 1967. “Individualism is being lost. I live on the fringe of society.”5 While De Grazia could charm people—especially women, for whom he had a weakness—he could exasperate others. The macho image he carefully nurtured concealed a self-centered personality coupled with a huge ego. He admitted to being a lousy father, and only in the final years of his life did he seem to find real intimacy in [3.144.189.177] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 09:43 GMT) 5 Introduction a relationship. He had four children, the last with his lover, Carol...