Larry Day (1921-1998) was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and after serving in the Pacific with the U.S. army during World War II, completed a B.S. and B.F.A. at Temple University in 1950. In 1952, Day spent a year in Paris, and later in that decade led an art tour through Europe. On his return from Paris in 1953, Day began teaching at the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, where he remained through 1988. His work is held by many important national and international museums, including the British Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.
Like many artists of his generation, Day began his career as an abstractionist and created a series of lyrical nature abstractions in the 1950s before devoting himself to figurative and representative paintings in the 1960s. Day is best known for his paintings of urban and suburban architectural subjects – residential areas, construction sites, abandoned warehouses, and empty streets. His estate is represented by Meredith Ward Fine Art.
