Nuns near the Mother House, 1961

In shades of ochre, brown, green, black and highlights of turquoise using the bare panel to speak to much of the composition, Fox implies two nuns strolling with a view toward what was the Mother House of the Sisters of the Congregation de Notre Dame, now Dawson College, an English language CEGEP. In a large part because Fox did not drive, he commonly found subject matter close to his home on downtown Montreal’s Selkirk Street (a few hundred meters from Galerie Alan Klinkhoff). This inspirational view is located literally on the “other side” of College de Montreal, from Selkirk. 

Nuns near the Mother House, 1961 is painted within the body of work well described by his partner and distinguished art historian, Sandra Paikowsky: 

“Fox’s painting from the late 1950s to 1972 describes his fascination with the familiar and non-dramatic aspects of daily life. [...]it reflects Fox’s interpretation of the visual concerns of Degas, Bonnard, Vuillard and Matisse. Their visual reinvention of the quiet dramas of modern life inspired Fox’s work throughout his career and would influence his lifelong definitions of art, whether his images were representational or abstract. [...]But most important to Fox was the work of James Wilson Morrice, whose quiet narratives encapsulate a moment in time without sentiment or artifice. Morrice’s sensitivity to the harmonious composing of shapes, spaces and tonalities inspired Fox’s images and his own painterly fusion of looking and transcribing what he saw and what he felt.”

Fox exhibited in the premiere art galleries, including Watson, Continental and Agnes Lefort Galleries in Montreal, and Laing and Roberts in Toronto.