Roy De Forest

(American, born 1930, died 2007)

Artist Roy De Forest (1930-2007) was a painter, sculptor, and teacher. He was involved in the 1960s Funk art movement in the Bay Area of California. His artworks are quirky and comical fantasy lands filled with bright colors and animals, most commonly dogs.

De Forest grew up in Yakima, Central Washington. He attended Yakima Junior College before earning his Bachelor of Arts degree at the California School of Fine Arts in 1953. After serving in the U.S. Army as a sign painter, he received a Master of Arts degree from San Francisco State College in 1958. He returned to Washington state to teach at Yakima Junior College from 1950 to 1952. He taught in the Art Department at the University of California Davis from 1967 to 1992. De Forest's artworks are in many art collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C.