William Brice

At age 86, he suffered injuries in a fall and never regained consciousness before dying at the UCLA Medical Center on March 3, 2008. He was survived by his wife, Shirley Bardeen, whom he had married in 1942, their son, John, and two grandsons.

From 1948 until 1952, he taught at the Jepson Art Institute in Los Angeles, and the following year began his long tenure at UCLA, continuing until his retirement in 1991, where he was a beloved teacher, and mentored generations of artists, for whom he "offered a connection to European Modernism."

Their mother, pursuing a career in radio, moved them to Beverly Hills. There he attended the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles (1937–39, 1940–42), as well as the Art Students League of New York in New York City (1939–40). His first solo show of paintings and drawings was presented at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in 1947. The early work was figural and representational. A 1950 L.A. Times review of his solo exhibition at the Frank Perls Gallery (Beverly Hills) praises the still lifes "that stress the geometrical aspects of common objects." Over time, he moved in the direction of greater abstraction, but rejected more progressive movements such as Abstract Expressionism and Action Painting. His work was characterized by expert draughtsmanship. He is particularly remembered for the "classic modernism" of his late work, in which masses reminiscent of ancient ruins figure prominently, inspired in part by an important trip to Greece in 1970.

William Arnstein, professionally William Brice (April 23, 1921 – March 3, 2008) was an American artist known for his large-scale abstract paintings.

Born to actress Fanny Brice and her second husband, professional gambler Julius W. "Nicky" Arnstein, April 23, 1921, he spent his early years living with his mother and his sister, Frances (later the wife of producer Ray Stark), while their father was in prison on a variety of charges stemming from a history of thefts, swindles, and confidence schemes. Artists such as Clifford Odets and the Gershwin brothers were frequent visitors.