De Grazia: The Man and the Myths
From Tucson Weekly, April 9 2014The challenge for biographer James W. Johnson inDe Grazia: The Man and the Mythswas to pull aside the curtain of the artist to see what strings he was pulling. De Grazia himself kept that curtain pretty taut: He made outrageous public claims about himself and left behind few  personal accounts. What emerges from Johnson's book is a portrait of an artist with boundless energy and drive, seeking both to please the artistic community and poke it in the eye. We get a glimpse of the man behind the curtain, and it's entertaining watching him pull strings.Artist Ted DeGrazia's paintings pulse with bold brush strokes and bright blocks of vibrant color. His faceless figures of Native American children and rough-textured landscapes immerse viewers in the Southwest and its culture. But the man behind these paintings remain a mystery to many. InDeGrazia: The Man and the Mythsthe authors attempt to construct a comprehensive picture of DeGrazia. The result is an entertaining profile of a mischievous man who built a wall of privacy around himself while struggling for approval and widespread recognition of his work.From Phoenix Magazine