Dave Fox (1920 – 2011)

Untitled (Biomorphic Composition), 1948, oil on textured paper mounted on board, signed and dated lower right, 16 x 18 inches, presented in an original painted frame

SOLD

Dave Fox was a Los Angeles-based painter and printmaker. He was born in Vienna, Austria in 1920 and lived there until the Nazi annexation when he sought refuge in Belgium.  Fox then arrived in Los Angeles in 1939. With the advent of World War II, Fox joined the US Army and served in the Pacific Theater. After the War, Fox returned to Southern California and studied with Rico Lebrun, Frances de Erderly, and Guy McCoy, who introduced Fox to printmaking, including serigraphy.  In the late 1940s, Fox also studied at the Bisttram School of Fine Art in Los Angeles which flourished between 1945 and the early 1950s. In his 1948 Untitled (Biomorphic Composition), Fox pays homage to the teachings of his instructor, Emil Bistrram, through his use of abstracted modernist forms which just barely hide their origins. After studying with Bisttram, Fox earned BFA, MA and MFA degrees from Cal State Fullerton. Fox’s oeuvre was varied and contained works that reflected his Jewish heritage, scenes of 1940s and 1950s Los Angeles, his recollections of Vienna, theater scenes, and modernist abstractions. In addition to his fine art practice, he worked as an artist and graphic designer for a Southern California electronics firm.