BIOGRAPHY
The New York Times: Obituary
Larry Zox, 69, Abstract Painter of Dynamic, Geometric Works Dies. by Grace Glueck, December 20, 2006
Larry Zox, a painter whose exuberant geometric abstractions made a stong contribution to the Color Field movement of the 1960s and '70s, died on Saturday. He was 69 and lived in Colchester; Conn. The cause was cancer said his daughter, Melinda.
In Mr. Zox's sigrrature works of the mid- to late 1960s, flatly painted diamonds, triangles and other hard-edged shapes were orchestrated into brilliant symmetrical and asymmetrical compositions of dynamically juxtaposed colors. Areas of raw canvas between the colors encouraged them to function harmoniously. ln 1973 the Whitney Museum of American Art recognized his importance in the field by organizing a solo show of his work. The next year he was represented in the inaugural exhibition of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, which owns 14 of his works. (The museum's founder, collector Joseph Hirshhorn, was a major Larry Zox collector.) But Mr. Zox's career languished for some years after the long illness and death of his first wife, Jean Glover.
Out of tune with the changing tastes of the New York art world, he exhibited at galleries around the country and taught or served as guest artist at several schools, among them Yale and Syracuse universities. A mini retrospective in 2005 at the Stephen Haller Gallery in Chelsea reintroduced him to a New York audience, with new canvases that were much freer in execution and more emotive than his midcareer work. With nuanced brushwork he painted loose, rough-edged vertical stripes separated by streaky chalk white lines. Color, always important to him, had become more significan than structure.
Born in Des Moines on May 31, 1937, he studied art with, among other teachers, George Grosz. The raw tones of Mr. Zox'g early work were informed by Abstract Expressionism; in collages from the early 60's he stapled torn pieces of dark and light paper to a board. But by his "Diamond Drill" series of 1967, he had arrived at the sharp geometrics, imbalances and tensions of his mature canvases. In New York of the '60s and '70s, he found his metier, holding forth in a studio on 20th Street where artists, jazz musicians, bikers and boxers were welcome. A powerful, muscular man, he kept up his energy by training with boxers. He was also an avid fisherman, working Long Island Sound and even renting a helicopter to sturdy coastal waters.
1937, born, Des Moines, Iowa
2006, died, Colchester, Connecticut
EDUCATION
1955, University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
1956, Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa
1956, Des Moines Art Center (studied with Geoge Grosz)
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Kornblee Gallery, New York, 1964
Kornblee Gallery, New York, 1965
Kornblee Gallery, New York, 1966
JL Hudson Gallery, Detroit, Michigan, 1967
Colgate University, Hamilton, New York, 1968
Galerie Rolf Ricke, Cologne, Germany, 1968
Kornblee Gallery, New York, 1968
Kornblee Gallery, New York, 1969
Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, 1970
Akron Art Institute, Ohio, 1971
Andre Emmerich Gallery, New York, 1973
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1973
Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa, 1974
Janie C. Lee Gallery, Dallas, Texas, 1974
Rush Rhees Gallery, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, 1974
Andre Emmerich Gallery, New York, 1975
Daniel Templeton Gallery, Paris, 1975
Andre Emmerich Gallery, New York, 1976
Medici-Berenson Gallery, Bay Harbor Islands, Florida, 1978
Allen Rubiner Gallery, Royal Oak, Michigan, 1979
Ivory/Kimpton Gallery, San Francisco, California, 1981
Hokin Gallery, Palm Beach, Florida, 1981
Meredith Long & Co., Houston, Texas, 1981
Salander-O’Reilly Gallery, New York, 1982
Rubiner Gallery, West Bloomfield, Michigan, 1985
Images Gallery, Toledo, Ohio, 1986
Percival Gallery, Des Moines Iowa 1987
Percival Gallery, Des Moines Iowa, 1989
Images Gallery, Toledo, Ohio, 1990
Rubiner Gallery, West Bloomfield, Michigan, 1990
Gallery One, Toronto, Canada, 1991
Percival Gallery, Des Moines, Iowa, 1991
Robert Stein Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri, 1992
Harnett Museum of Art, University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia, 1993
CS Shulte Gallery, Millburn, New Jersey, 1994
Percival Gallery, Des Moines, Iowa, 1995
Percival Gallery, Des Moines, Iowa, 2000
Olson Larsen Gallery, Des Moines, Iowa, 2002
Olson Larsen Gallery, Des Moines, Iowa, 2003
Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, 2005
Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, 2006
Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, 2007
Rocket Gallery, London, 2007
DTR Modern Galleries, Boston, Massachusetts, 2007
Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, 2008
Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, 2010
Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, 2011
Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, 2013
Berry Campbell Gallery, New York, 2017
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
The American Gallery, New York, 1963
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, 1964
Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1964
Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, 1965
Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, 1965
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1965
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1966
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1967
Riverside Museum, California, 1968
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1968
Vassar College Art Gallery, Poughkeepsie, New York, 1969
Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts, 1969
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1970
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1972
Palm Spring Desert Museum, Palm Springs, California, 1973
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1973
Andre Emmerich Gallery, New York, 1975
Edmonton Art Gallery, Alberta, Canada, 1977
Allen Rubiner Gallery, Royal Oak, Michigan, 1979
Ryngwood, Old Brooklyn, New York, 1979
Maryland Institute of Art, Baltimore, 1980
Meredith Long & Co., Houston, Texas, 1980
Meredith Long & Co., Houston, Texas, 1980
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Massachusetts, 1981
Richard F. Brush Art Gallery, St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York, 1981
Salander-O’Reilly, New York, 1981
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1981
Rubiner Gallery, West Bloomfield, Michigan, 1985
Percival Gallery, Des Moines, Iowa, 1987
Charles H. MacNider Museum, Mason City, Iowa, 1988
Muscatine Art Center, Iowa, 1988
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, 1991
CS Shulte Gallery, Millburn, New Jersey, 1993
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, 1994
Mitchell Algus Gallery, New York, 1994
Percival Gallery, Des Moines, Iowa, 1995
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, 1998
Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, 2001
Elaine Baker Gallery, Boca Raton, Florida, 2005
Guild Hall, East Hampton, New York, 2006
Miami University Art Museum, Oxford, Ohio, 2006
Terrain Gallery, New York, 2006
Boca Raton Museum of Art, Florida, 2009
Munson Williams Proctor Museum of Art, Utica, New York, 2009
Price Tower Arts Center, Bartlesville, Oklahoma, 2009
Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, 2009
Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, 2009
Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, Berlin, Germany, 2010
Donna Beam Gallery, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2010
Loretta Howard Gallery, New York, 2010
Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, 2010
Steven Kasher Gallery, New York, 2010
Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain, 2011
Museum Gallery of Modern Art, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2011
Museum of Modern Art Weserburg, Bremen, Germany, 2011
Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, California, 2011
Leepa-Ratner Museum of Art, Tarpon Springs, Florida, 2012
Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, 2012
Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, 2012
Berry Campbell, New York, Summer Selections, 2015.
Berry Campbell, New York, Summer Selections, 2016.
Eric Firestone Gallery, East Hampton, Montauk Highway: Postwar Abstraction in the Hamptons, 2017.
Berry Campbell, New York, Summer Selections, 2017.
Berry Campbell, New York, Summer Selections, 2018.
Eric Firestone Gallery, East Hampton, New York, Montauk Highway II: Postwar Abstraction in the Hamptons, 2018.
Alpha 137 Gallery, New York, Staff Favorites, 2018.
Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, Annual 50th Collectors Show and Sale, 2018-2019.
MUSEUM COLLECTIONS
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Ohio
Akron Art Institute, Ohio
Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
Baum Gallery of Fine Art, University of Central Arkansas, Conway
Boca Raton Museum of Art, Florida
Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York
Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida
Dallas Museum of Art, Texas
Daimler Art Collection, Stuttgart, Germany
Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, Missouri
Des Moines Art Center, Iowa
Empire State Art Collection, New York
Fred Jones Jr Museum of Art, Norman, OK
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire
Indianapolis Art Museum, Indiana
Kresge Art Museum, East Lansing, Michigan
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Miami University Art Museum, Oxford, Ohio
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
Museum of Modern Art, New York
The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Neues Museum Weserburg Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida
Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma
Palm Springs Desert Museum, California
Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York
Portland Art Museum, Oregon
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Tate Modern, London
University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, Michigan
University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington
University of Virginia Art Museum, Charlottesville
Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
AWARDS/GRANTS
Guggenheim Fellowship, 1967
National Council of the Arts, 1969
Adolph Gottlieb Foundation Grant, 1985