Catherine Lee
Born1950
NationalityAmerican
EducationSan José State University
Known forPainting, Sculpting, Printmaking

Catherine Lee (born 1950 in Pampa, Texas) is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker. Her works, featuring repetitive forms in various materials (including canvas, bronze, iron, glass, and ceramics)[1] have been described as minimalist and structuralist.[2]

Biography

Lee grew up in Pampa, Texas. She studied at San Jose State University in San Jose, California, where she earned a bachelor's degree in studio art in 1974.[3] Lee was married to abstract artist Sean Scully from 1978 to 1998. She lived in New York City for 32 years and returned to Texas in late 1990s, settling in the Hill Country near Austin.[4] Some of her work is currently held and can be seen in the collections of New York's Museum of Modern Art, the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, and the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.[5] Some of her sculptures are also available for purchase on Artnet.[5]

Work

Catherine Lee's sculptures (as small as a fist or as large as a sedan standing on end) are faceted polyhedra or polygons made from cast metal or clay. Hung on the wall, freestanding, or situated on plain steel pedestals or shelves — "some are singular works, others are grids of dozens of nearly identical, handmade components".[1] She would personally describe herself as an abstract artist because she has such a strong personal attachment to abstraction, explaining how her work "refers to things in the world tangentially, but it’s not at all representational."[6] She creates both paintings and sculptures, but doesn't have a preference for one over the other. She thinks of painting as more emotionally engaging, whereas she thinks of sculpture-making as problem-solving.[6]

Lee held her first solo exhibition in 1977 at the Duffy-Gibbs Gallery in New York City, and her work has been subsequently displayed in several public and private collections.[4] A Los Angeles Times review of her 1988 solo exhibition at Michael Maloney Gallery describes her work as small, quirky wall pieces consisting of oddly shaped, individually colored or bronze elements that nestle closely together, often in a jigsaw fashion.[7] She often utilizes black and monochrome colors in her works because she appreciates the hostility these colors can bring to each piece.[5]

In 2012, she was the featured artist of the West Texas Triangle, group of five art museums in western Texas.[2][8][9] Her work Unica 39 (1987), an "abstract monotype in color", is a part of the permanent exhibition in the Tate Gallery.[4][10] Lee's favored method of making ceramic artwork is Raku due to the original and how it is highly impossible to reproduce the same result again.[11]

Teaching

Lee has taught at Princeton University (1980), Rochester Institute of Technology (1982), the University of Texas at San Antonio (1983) and (2000), and Columbia University (1986–1987).[12]

Collections

Solo exhibitions

A list of Catherine Lee's exhibitions taken from the book Catherine Lee, the Alphabet Series and Other Works by the Pamela Auchincloss Gallery.[14]

Year City Gallery
1980 Queens, New York MoMA PS1
1983 San Antonio The University of Texas
1984 Akron John Davis Gallery
1985 New York Gallery Bellman
1985 Akron John Davis Gallery
1986 New York John Davis Gallery
1987 New York John Davis Gallery
1988 Santa Monica Michael Maloney Gallery
1989 London Annely Juda Fine Art
1989 Boston Thomas Segal Gallery
1990 New York Marisa del Re Gallery
1990 Paris Galerie Karsten Greve
1990 Osaka Gallery Kasahara
1990 San Francisco Stephen Wirtz Gallery
1991 Zürich Galerie Jamileh Weber
1991 Cologne Galerie Karsten Greve
1991 Nagoya Kohji Ogura Gallery
1992 Munich Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus
1992 Linz Neue Galerie der Stadt Linz
1992 Copenhagen Galleri Weinberger
1993 New York City Galerie Lelong
1994 Birmingham, Michigan Hill Gallery
1995 Paris Galerie Karsten Greve
1995 Copenhagen Galleri Weinberger
1995 New York City Galerie Lelong
1995 Köln Galerie Karsten Greve
1995 Tokyo Mizuma Art Gallery
1996 Salzburg Galerie Academia
1997 Paris Galerie Karsten Greve
1998 Köln Galerie Karsten Greve
1999 New York City Galerie Lelong

Early life

Growing up, Lee had her first experience with art in the third grade when she was living in Germany at an army base. She attended a local art museum in Kaiserslautern, and explains how she was "stunned by the sense of quiet, of reverence."[16] She spent the majority of her career living and working in New York, NY.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Catherine Lee: Time". Lora Reynolds gallery. 2017.
  2. 1 2 Wei, Lilly; Westfall, Stephen; Pardee, Hearne (31 January 2013). Catherine Lee: West Texas Triangle. publisher: Charta/Galerie Lelong NY. ISBN 9788881588503. Retrieved 6 September 2017.
  3. Weaver, Suzanne; Meador, Lana (2020). Texas Women: A New History of Abstract Art. San Antonio Museum of Art. p. 58. ISBN 978-1-883502-08-9.
  4. 1 2 3 Jules Heller; Nancy G. Heller (19 December 2013). North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. Routledge. pp. 332–. ISBN 978-1-135-63882-5.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Catherine Lee | Artnet". www.artnet.com. Retrieved 2021-10-06.
  6. 1 2 Geha, Katie (2012-06-22). "Interview with Catherine Lee". Glasstire. Retrieved 2022-10-12.
  7. Cathy Curtis, "Santa Monica", Los Angeles Times, July 1, 1988. Accessed April 24, 2020.
  8. Geha, Katie (21 June 2012). "Interview with Catherine Lee". Glasstire. Retrieved 6 September 2017.
  9. "About". West Texas Triangle. Archived from the original on 20 June 2017. Retrieved 6 September 2017.
  10. "Catherine Lee: Artworks". Tate Gallery. Retrieved 6 September 2017.
  11. "Catherine Lee: Time".
  12. "Catherine Lee Biography".
  13. "Works | Catherine Lee | People | the MFAH Collections".
  14. 1 2 Catherine Lee the Alphabet Series and Other Works. University of Washington Press. 1997. ISBN 096597460X.
  15. "Collection Landing". www.nashersculpturecenter.org. Retrieved 2021-10-07.
  16. Sweeney, Gary. "Artist on Artist: Gary Sweeney interviews Catherine Lee". San Antonio Current. Retrieved 2022-10-12.
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