User:Lyapp/Rex Slinkard

Rex Slinkard (5 June 1887 – 18 October 1918) was an American painter and rancher whose sensuous and imaginative works, most notably his landscapes of the American West, significantly influenced the modernist elements of California's growing art scene. In addition to his artistic talents, Slinkard's magnetic personality, 'free spirit' lifestyle, and early death elevated him to iconic status – what Marsden Harley coined "the legend of Rex Slinkard" – amongst his avant-garde contemporaries, including Charles Demuth, William Carlos Williams, and Marianne Moore.

Early Life
The second child of Stephen Wall Slinkard (1858-1921) and Laura Simonson Slinkard (1856-1945). Rex Slinkard was born in Bicknell, Indiana on June 5, 1887. In 1903, the family relocated to San Pedro, California, then the primary port of Los Angeles. Here S.W. Slinkard briefly owned a waterfront saloon where the teenage Rex worked until 1904, when the establishment was closed following the local authorities' denial of its license. Shortly thereafter, in 1905, Slinkard enrolled in his first art classes at Los Angeles' College of Fine Arts (where he studied under William Lees Judson) and, in 1906, joined the city's Arts Student League, at that time led by Warren Hedges.

In July, 1908, the family moved again, this time to San Antonio, Texas, where S. W. Slinkard purchased 20 acres to set up an ultimately unprofitable ostrich farm.