John Fabion

John Fabion, born in Austria in 1905, immigrated to the United States in 1912 and became a naturalized citizen in 1922. He studied art abroad at The Royal Academy of Florence, The Arts and Crafts School (Kunstgewerbeschule) in Vienna and the National Academy of Krakow in Poland; he graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1934. Following World War II, Fabion returned to his Chicago alma mater to assume a professorial role where he continued to teach until 1970.

Although Fabion was a world-recognized artist who had taken many honors and prizes at the Art Institute of Chicago and exhibited throughout the United States and Europe, he is best remembered for the work he produced while a combat artist with the United States Marine Corps during World War II. In addition, Fabion had previously worked as a WPA artist for about five years, and went to Vietnam in 1968 as a civilian combat artist for the Marine Corps. He was decorated for his military service with a Purple Heart and Bronze Star.

The bronze Bison was produced in 1935, a year after Fabion finished his studies at the Art Institute of Chicago. Highly stylized, the animal is shown in a reclining pose.