35 Facts About Ettore DeGrazia

Ettore "Ted" DeGrazia was an American impressionist, painter, sculptor, composer, actor, director, designer, architect, jeweler, and lithographer.

Ettore DeGrazia painted several series of exhibitions like the Papago Legends, Padre Kino, Cabeza de Vaca.

Ettore DeGrazia was born to Italian immigrants, on June 14,1909, in Morenci, Arizona Territory.

The Ettore DeGrazia's family immigrated in 1898 from the Italian regions of Calabria and Campania.

Ettore DeGrazia had to work his way through elementary school, Junior high, and high school.

Ettore DeGrazia played his trumpet at night, and landscaped at the University of Arizona during the day, in order to pay for his classes.

Ettore DeGrazia studied music and received his first bachelor's degree in Art Education.

In 1936, Ettore DeGrazia met Alexandra Diamos while attending classes at the University of Arizona, and that same year, they married.

Ettore DeGrazia's father was a business man who owned many of the largest movie theatres in Southern Arizona.

Alexandra and Ettore DeGrazia moved to Bisbee where he managed his father-in-law's theatre.

Ettore DeGrazia was searching, trying to find his own style.

Ettore DeGrazia met many other famous, and soon-to-be famous, artists.

In 1942, Ettore DeGrazia traveled to Mexico City where he met Diego Rivera, Mexico's master muralist.

Ettore DeGrazia assisted Rivera with murals at the Palacio Nacional and the Hospital de Jesus.

Ettore DeGrazia returned to the University of Arizona, studying under Katherine Kitt.

In 1944, Ettore DeGrazia was hired by Lou Witzeman, editor and chief at the University of Arizona, for a mural project in exchange for the cost of art supplies for the project.

Since this mural painting took place two years after his apprenticeship under Diego Rivera, Ettore DeGrazia chose to paint a politically based mural.

Ettore DeGrazia felt that universities were growing too political, greedy, and corporate minded.

Part of Ettore DeGrazia's thesis included the 'Color Machine' which he built to measure the different levels of tone and pitch when music was being played.

Ettore DeGrazia assigned specific emotions, shapes, and colors to his 'Color Music Pattern Test'.

Ettore DeGrazia gave the test to over 350 students at the University of Arizona.

Ettore DeGrazia would stop the music in certain intervals and ask each student what colors and shapes they saw.

Incredibly, from these results Ettore DeGrazia was able to 'paint' these symphonies from the information the students had given him.

Ettore DeGrazia remembered well the criticism he received in those early days from people who thought his art wasn't any good.

Individuals did not like how Ettore DeGrazia followed his own rules in regards to art.

On one occasion, Ettore DeGrazia was sitting in Rosita's Mexican restaurant and a man walked in and shouted to him from across the room.

The man, who obviously did not like Ettore DeGrazia, strode over to Ettore DeGrazia's table and interrupted him.

One year later, Ettore DeGrazia married Marion Sheret in a small chapel, deep in the jungles of Mexico.

Ettore DeGrazia felt cramped with so many people moving to Tucson and he wanted to escape its growth.

Once Ettore DeGrazia had his home and his Little Gallery he was then free to start work on his dream gallery, the Ettore DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun.

Ettore DeGrazia built the Mission in the Sun, his home, and his original 'Little Gallery' near the corner of Swan and Skyline roads.

In 1976, Ettore DeGrazia engaged in a protest against the Federal Inheritance Tax.

The only way for Ettore DeGrazia to avoid this huge government taxation was for him to make his Gallery In the Sun a non-profit foundation.

In 1982, Ettore DeGrazia died of cancer on September 17, at the age of 73.

Ettore DeGrazia's beloved Gallery In the Sun has been listed on the National Historic Registry as a historic district, in 2006.