Holocaust Museum LA to Present 'From the Danube to the Pacific, Reinventing Home: The Artwork of Dave Fox'

Holocaust Museum LA will present "From the Danube to the Pacific, Reinventing Home: The Artwork of Dave Fox," officially opening Sunday, Jan. 22, at 3 p.m. The exhibit, featuring Fox's paintings, drawings, silkscreens and sculpture includes artwork inspired by his idyllic childhood in Vienna as well as scenes depicting iconic locations from his reinvented home in Los Angeles and will be exhibited at the museum until April 16.

Born in 1920 in Vienna, Dave Fox's idyllic home was transformed into a dangerous and unwelcoming place for Austrian Jews with the rise of Nazism. Spurred by the anti-Jewish violence and laws that followed, Dave and his family escaped to the U.S. in 1939 and settled in Los Angeles. He used his keen powers of observation to discover the landscape of his new country, exploring and capturing scenes that mirrored his homeland: The hillsides outside LA, the coffee houses and bakeries at the Farmers Market, and the fish monger at the docks. Always with a sketchbook in hand, Fox's art reflected his restlessness in completely embracing his new life while remembering the country of his birth. Fox continued learning, drawing and sketching until he passed away in 2011 at the age of 90.

"From the Danube to the Pacific" explores the traumatic imprint of identity-based violence and coerced migration on one's relationship with self, family and home-what it means to one's identity; what happens when "home" is forcibly taken away; and how those who survive traumatic events like the Holocaust are forced to reinvent, reestablish and reclaim "home."

The opening reception, in partnership with Wilshire Boulevard Temple, will feature a conversation about displacement, reinvention and recollection with Rabbi Karen Fox (the artist's daughter), Curator Georgia Freedman-Harvey and Holocaust Museum LA Vice President of Education and Exhibitions Jordanna Gessler.

More information about the exhibit can be found at https://www.holocaustmuseumla.org/dave-fox.

For more information about the opening event and to register, visit https://www.holocaustmuseumla.org/event-details/from-the-danube-to-the-pacific-reinventing-home-the-artwork-of-dave-fox-exhibition-opening-reception.

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