$300 Symbols signed 1950 print - 6/35 15" x 11"
$485 World War II cityscape signed 1945 watercolor 10.25" x 14.5"
$200 Farm (West of Minneapolis) signed 1969 graphite on paper 9.5" x 15.5"
SOLD Industrial Scene signed 1942 gouache 10.75" x 16.5"
SOLD Palace of Fine Arts (SanFrancisco, CA) signed 1958 Casein on Art Board 20.5" x 32"
SOLD Untitled signed 1948 oil on board 32" x 20"
SOLD Landscape signed, 1962 watercolor 21" x 29"
SOLD St. Paul Skyline signed, 1962 watercolor 20" x 29"
SOLD Industrial signed oil on board 24" x 36"
SOLD Industrial Scene signed watercolor 12" x 14.5"
SOLD Gas Works signed 1952 print 11" x 17"
SOLD Lobster signed 1966 print 23" x 17"
SOLD Popcorn signed 1952 print 10.5" x 17"
SOLD Little Switzerland signed 1947 print 20" x 24"
SOLD Fishing Shacks signed 1948 ink wash 10" x 16"
SOLD Town scene signed 1946 oil on canvas 30" x 40"
SOLD 1946 watercolor 16" x 20"
Sydney (Syd) Fossum (1909-1978)
Sydney Glenn Fossum was born on November 13, 1909, in Aberdeen, South Dakota to George and Olive Fossum. He attended the Northern State Teachers College in South Dakota and then studied at the Minneapolis School of Art from 1929-1933, where he received a B.F.A. degree. He married Bernice (Bunny) Olson in 1932.
He participated in government-sponsored art programs during the 1930s, including the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA). He was very active politically and socially during this period and was involved with the Minnesota Artists Union and he was elected president of the organization. He served in the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1945.
Following the war, he held numerous teaching positions at institutions around the country, including Minneapolis School of Art, 1945-50; Washington University, 1950-51; Des Moines Art Center, 1953-57; University of Nevada (summers), 1957 and 1958; Minnetonka Art Center, the late 1960s. He also was the Director of the Duluth Art Institute from 1960 to 1962. He died in San Francisco in February 1978.
Syd Fossum won exhibition awards during his career, taking prizes at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and at the Minnesota State Fair during the 1930s. His work was exhibited in a number of one-man and group shows throughout his lifetime. He worked in a variety of media and created drawings, oil, and watercolor paintings, screen prints and lithographs. Fossum also did not limit the subject matter of his work, which has included satirical group character studies, somber portraits, city scenes, and pastoral landscapes.
Fossum's work is part of the collections of the University of Minnesota, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Walker Art Center, the Des Moines Art Center and the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.