ZIMERI A. COX (1920 - 2008) Untitled (Jazz Singer).
Oil on linen canvas, 1949. 914x610 mm; 36x24 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto. Signed, dated "Nov. - Dec. 1949" and inscribed "NYC" in oil, verso.
This wonderful image of an abstracted jazz singer is an early painting by artist and educator Zimeri Alvin Cox. Born on October 4, 1920 in Plumersville, AK, he grew up in Wichita, KS and earned a BA degree from the College of Fine Arts, University of Wichita, Kansas. After serving served in the US Army, Cox was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study fine art at the University of Florence.
Cox exhibited his paintings in New York in the 1950s, including first solo exhibition at the Creative Gallery in 1953. Cox went on to earn a MA and later a PhD in art history from the New York University, Graduate School of Fine Arts in 1976. Cox taught studio art and art history at Queens College and in New York public schools. He later joined the art history faculty at Western Illinois University in Macomb, IL. He went on teach to art history at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, and art history and studio art at Carthage College in Kenosha, WI, before retiring in 1983.
