Clark V. Fox, born in 1946 as Michael V. Clark, started making art full-time in Houston at the age of five and has never stopped. With a Native American background whose father was aa professional photographer and a mother who painted, Clark feels that art chose him rather than vice versa, viewing his calling as a spiritual, “sacred trust.”
He moved to Manhattan in 1970 where he continued to be an active participant in modern art community, hanging out with Rivers, Rauschenberg, and Warhol, and later discussing art concepts extensively with close friend Julian Schnable. Beginning in the seventies, Clark used Mr. Peanut as a vehicle for ironically commenting on consumerist culture and brand-name icons, drawing on the analyses of the Situationist International. “Much of my work is political and socialistic but incorporates classical art traditions of still life color, and portraiture,” Clark said. “In the 60’s, my still life studies of oranges were done as a meditation on form and color, but they were also my tributes to the Mexican migrant workers making less than $1.00 a day selling oranges on the highway.””The scene today is totally different, but most people who will go for my work aren’t even been born yet,” Clark said. “I’m competing with the ages now, not with the artists of the moment.”
