1960’s Oil Painting Byzantine Architecture “Scene From Istanbul” Turkey signed Dick Fort

Richard “Dick” Lindsey Fort (American, 1922 - 2016) “Scene from Istanbul”, circa 1960’s, oil painting on canvas. Signed lower right. Depicts villagers working with a group of Byzantine building in the background. Purchased directly from the artist’s estate. Framed in artist made simple wood slat frame, stretched on wooden stretchers. Measures 41in x 29in framed and 40in x 28in image only. Condition: Excellent vintage condition.

Biography: Richard "Dick" Lindsey Fort was born July 6, 1922 in Mitchell, South Dakota, The family later moved to Sioux Falls. Dick graduated from Washington High School in 1940 and went on to Grinnell College in Iowa, majoring in English and German. Called up from the army reserves in 1943, Dick trained for World War II as a combat engineer at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. But he was soon singled out for advanced training in a special German language unit at Kenyon College in Ohio. In 1944 he trained in London as crypto-analyst in a mobile Signal Service Company. Following D-Day at Normandy, Dick served as a code-breaker, intercepting German war-front radio messages in France, Belgium, and Holland, moving with the troops in their march to the Elbe River and down into southern Germany. He was awarded battle stars for pin-pointing enemy artillery and armored positions during his war-time intelligence work, especially in the Battle of the Rhineland. Dick mustered out of the army at Christmas 1945, in England. Suffering from undulant fever due to contaminated milk in France, he spent a year recovering at his parents’ home in Sioux Falls. Returning to Grinnell College in 1946, Dick used credits from his wartime German training at Kenyon to graduate in one semester. Thinking to become a novelist, in 1947, Dick began work on a master's degree in English at the University of Chicago. But in 1948 he switched to studio art at The Art Institute of Chicago, under the GI Bill. He completed his BFA in three years, and the equivalent of an MFA in 1952. Dick taught Art History and Studio Art at Grinnell during 1952-54, but decided in 1955 to make a living as an artist in Chicago. In the 1950s and 1960s, Dick ventured out from his Near North Side apartment to sketch and later paint scenes of people in cabarets and lounges along the famous nearby Rush Street nightlife area of Chicago. In the early 1970s Dick joined with a younger colleague and a house painter to open a small gallery on trendy North Lincoln Avenue in Chicago. Funded by Dick for a couple years, the Triforum Gallery in front offered space for aspiring local artists to show contemporary works and, in back, provided his own studio space. This information generously provided by website dedicated to his memory - Search online for "dick fort wixsite" for more information about Dick Fort’s life.