John Gilford Wilcox departed this life on June 13, 2012 after a brief illness. John was born in Denison, Texas on August 31, 1954, the oldest son of Mary Margaret Munson Wilcox and Wilson Edison Wilcox. John grew up in Denison, Texas and attended St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Austin, Texas. While at St. Stephen’s John received the Bishop’s Medal for outstanding academic achievement in his senior year and his work as a young artist drew the attention of faculty as well as fine art galleries in Austin. John attended Colorado College in Colorado Springs where he earned a Bachelors of Fine Arts and completed commissioned work for the College’s Packard Hall of Art and Music. Thus began John’s long career as an artist working in acrylics, oils and a variety of other mediums.
John worked at the Fort Worth Modern Art Museum (now the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth) during the late 1970’s. There he met and worked with the well known artists Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, and Dan Flavin. During the 1980’s, John moved to New York and exhibited his work with Fawbush Gallery in New York City and Barry Whistler Gallery in Dallas. John’s contemporaries in New York included Joan Nelson, Don Powley, and Kiki Smith.
Returning to Texas in 1990, John worked out of a studio near Fair Park in Dallas. He spent most weekends near Denison, painting and enjoying the family home on Lake Texoma. He continued to exhibit his work with Fawbush and Whistler. As his work began to receive more attention, his pieces were shown at the Drawing Center in New York, the Weatherspoon Art Gallery at the University of North Carolina, The McKinney Avenue Contemporary in Dallas, and Artpace in San Antonio. John’s work is included in the permanent collection of the Dallas Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, The University of North Carolina, as well as many important corporate and private collections.
A true artist’s artist, John’s iconic, often obsessively detailed paintings and drawings were filled with wonder and earned critical acclaim in the New York Times, Art in America, The Dallas Morning News, and The Dallas Observer. Well-known artist and friend James Magee of El Paso wrote of John’s passing: “Truthful art is biography. The more intimate the better. John Wilcox’s Yellow Painting (2001), was ostensibly an abstract image of a bed in a pointalist style, entitled: “Eternal Rest From a World of Damage: A Psalm of Mistakes Turning into a Miracle”. However, this work and John’s body of work as a whole, was an act of meditation of the highest order. I last saw John, in fact, lying in his bed. Nearby there was no water rising, no iron vice closing slowly, only John listening quietly to those around him. He seemed at peace, always precise; and at that moment, he appeared to be drifting through a door into another world, not unlike the line work of his finest pictures – abstract, rigorous, metaphysical, but still referencing the Light about him.”
John’s friendship, creative spirit, and devotion to art will be missed and will carry on through his work. Missed too will be his deep reverence for the Spiritual as well as his wonderful joy, sense of humor, and love for friends, acquaintances and family. John was a member of the St. Luke’s Episcopal Parish in Denison, Texas.
John is survived by his brother, Dr. David Wilcox and David’s wife Charlotte Pierce as well as John’s niece and nephew - Lillian Wilcox and Aidan Wilcox of Arlington, Massachusetts. Other immediate family includes Doris Boyd Wilcox of Sherman Texas and Robert Boyd of Allen, Texas. John leaves behind numerous wonderful, devoted friends as well as aunts, uncles, cousins and extended family members who loved him dearly.
The family wishes to thank VNA Dallas for their loving attention to John through their hospice and home sitters program. The support of dear friends through the last months was also a tremendous comfort for John. A very special thanks is extended to Allie Alexander, Harry Smith and Steve Golston for the support, assistance and joy they brought to John.
Services for John will be held at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Denison, Texas on Wednesday, June 20, 2012 at 10 a.m., the Very Reverend Don Perschall presiding. Interment will be at Fairview Cemetery in Denison. Pallbearers will be: David Wilcox, Aidan Wilcox, David Dowler, Will Boston, Dirk Rogers, and Harry Smith. Honorary Pallbearers will be: Robert Boyd, Barry Whistler, James Magee, Tommy Jones, Greg Davis, Don Powley, Michael Sullivan, Jim Fiscus, Jim Oseland, Robert Levers, David Munson, Sr., Peter K. Munson, William B. Munson IV, Richard Munson, John D. Munson, Felix T. Munson, Leighton DeTora, John Pomeroy, David Munson Jr., Charles C. Munson, John K. Munson, Thomas McNutt, William Munson, and Dr. Michael Schlesser.
The family will have visitation on Tuesday, June 19, 2012 at 425 Thompson Heights Drive, Denison, TX on Lake Texoma from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
In lieu of flowers donations may be made in John’s memory to either: The John Wilcox Contemporary Art Exhibition Fund at the Dallas Museum of Art, attention Libby Camp, Dallas Museum of Art, 1717 North Harwood St., Dallas, Texas 75201 or the Resource Center of Dallas, 2701 Reagan Street, Dallas, Texas 75219.
Arrangements entrusted to Bratcher Funeral Home, 401 W. Woodard St. Denison, TX 75020, 903-465-2323
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