Watercolor on Paper

Untitled orange toned abstract watercolor painting by American painter Larry Zox. The work features a pastel orange wash of color accented with black horizontal lines. Signed in pencil in the front lower right worker. Currently hung in a light, natural wood floating frame.

American abstract painter born at Des Moines, Iowa on May 31, 1937, Larry Zox studied at the University of Oklahoma, Drake University, and then the Des Moines Art Center under the mentorship of George Grosz, a figurative artist who nevertheless encouraged the young abstract painter. Zox moved to New York in 1958 and became part of the downtown art scene. His earliest works, completed in 1959-62, were painted collages consisting of painted pieces of paper stapled onto joined sheets of plywood. Afterwards, he made pictures similar in appearance to the collages, but entirely painted and with straight as well as ragged edges. Zox began his 'Rotation' series in 1963 to use a standardised geometrical compositional schema as the basis for a series of paintings each different in colour. Some of the compositions, suggesting overlapping, bending etc., were evolved with the aid of plywood and perspex reliefs. By the mid-60s, his large geometric paintings were appearing at prestigious galleries. On 20th Street, Zox maintained a studio that became a gathering place for artists, jazz musicians, bikers, and boxers. A large man, Zox occasionally sparred with visiting fighters. Later, he had a studio in East Hampton, where he liked to fish and was even known to go fish spotting by helicopter. By 2005, when he had his first New York solo show in more than two decades, his style had mellowed from the hard-edged geometry of the 1960s and 70s. His lines had become more fluid and his surfaces more painterly, but his concern with color and shape remained unabated. Zox died of cancer on December 16, 2006.

H 45.5 in. x W 33.25 in. x D 1.25 in.

H 41.75 in. x W 29 in.