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ROY DE FOREST (American, 1930-2007), “Untitled”, 1958, oil and collage on canvas, 73 1/2″ x 69 1/2″ (More)

ROY DE FOREST (1930-2007), Untitled (Snowfield Series), ca. 1960, Mixed media on paperboard, 20” x 15”

ROY DE FOREST (American, 1930-2007), “San F. Museum”, Mixed Media Collage, 1950-1954, 30″ x 38″ (More)

ROY DE FOREST (American 1930-2007), Untitled, 1958, Mixed media on paper, 11” x 8.5” (18” x 15”, framed) (More)

Roy De Forest

Born in 1930 in North Platte, Nebraska, Roy De Forest spent the bulk of his youth in Yakima, Washington where he began his education in the arts. In 1950 he relocated to California to study at the California School of Fine Arts, where he earned his bachelor’s degree. After serving in the US Army during World War II, De Forest went on to earn his master’s degree at San Francisco State College.

His first exhibition in 1955 reflected the influence that the Abstract Expressionist movement had on him, but by 1960 his work had grown more representational and suggestive of both human and animal forms.   Origins and relationships between the forms that De Forest created grew more personal and suggestive of dream-like worlds and ideas.

In addition to painting, De Forest also taught at the University of California, Davis alongside renowned artists such as Robert Arneson, Manuel Neri, Wayne Thiebaud and William T. Wiley. Of their group collaborations, Renny Pritki of Nelson Gallery remarked, “history was made…when five great artists came together on the same faculty for over a decade and changed the nature and perception of art in California forever”. A group show of their art became a touring retrospective organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1975.

UC Davis in the 1960s became a hub for Funk art and De Forest, along with Wiley, Arneson, and David Gilhooly collaborated on many group exhibitions associated with the movement. De Forest was responsible for the off shoot of Funk art, coined “Nut art”, that embraced humor and fantasy to create alternative worlds using artistic tools.

De Forest received a National Endowment for the Arts Award and took part in many successful exhibitions at institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He passed in 2007.

Selected  Collections

Whitney Museum of American Art
The Smithsonian American Art Museum
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The Crocker Art Museum of Sacramento
The Fine Art Museums of San Francisco
The Hirshhorn Museum of Washington, D.C.
The Rhode Island School of Design
The Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University
Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Boston Museum of Fine Art
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Selected Solo Exhibitions

1955 East & West Gallery
1958 East & West Gallery
1960, 1962 Dilexi Gallery
1966, 1967 Allan Frumkin Gallery
1966, 1972 San Francisco Art Institute
1969 Gallery Marc
1971 California Palace of the Legion of Honor
1971 Glenbow-Alberta Art Gallery
1974 Fendrick Gallery
1976 Institute of Contemporary Art 1977 Marian Locks Gallery
1978 Boston Museum of Fine Arts
1982 Alan Frumpton Gallery
1985 The Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University
1986 Fuller Goldeen Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1987 Galerie Darthea Speyer, Paris, France
Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Pittsburgh, PA
1988 Dorothy Goldeen Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
Natsoulas / Novelozo, Davis, CA
Struve Gallery, Chicago, IL
1989 Fuller Gross Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Marilyn Butler Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
1990 Frumkin/Adams Gallery, New York, NY
Fuller Gross Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Stanford Museum of Art, Stanford, CA
Natsoulas / Novelozo, Davis, CA
1991 Dorothy Goldeen Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
1992 John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1993 New Paintings and Drawings, Frumkin/Adams Gallery, New York, NY
1994 John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1996 George Adams Gallery, New York, NY
Natsoulas / Novelozo, Davis, CA
1997 New Constructions, George Adams Gallery, New York, NY
2005 George Adams Gallery, New York, New York
2006 Recent Paintings, Brian Gross Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
2008 Roy De Forest: A Memorial Exhibition, George Adams Gallery, New York, NY
2009 Painting the Big Painting, Brian Gross Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
2012 A Figure of Our Times, Brian Gross Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
Bark!, John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA
2013 Roy De Forest: A Simple Life, George Adams Gallery, New York, NY
2015 Let Sleeping Dogs Lie, Brian Gross Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
2017 Man of Our Times: Drawings by Roy De Forest, Brian Gross Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
2017 Of Dogs and Other People: The Art of Roy De Forest, Oakland Museum of California
2017 Civic Art Collection in Focus: Roy De Forest, San Francisco Arts Commission Main Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Selected Group Exhibitions

 1973 Whitney Museum of American Art
1976 San Francisco Museum of Art
1978 Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco
1980 Whitney Museum of American Art
1981 Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art
1981 San Francisco Art Institute
1981 Brooklyn Museum
1981 Whitney Museum of American Art
1982 De Saisset Museum at Santa Clara University
1982 Boston Museum of Fine Arts
1994 The Oakland Museum of California
1997 Museum of Modern Art, New York
1998 John Berggruen Gallery
2003 George Adams Gallery
2011 Richmond Art Center
2012 San Jose Museum of Art