Research Catalog

Simple pleasures : the art of Doris Lee / Melissa Wolfe ; with essays by John Fagg, Tom Wolf, Barbara L. Jones.

Title
Simple pleasures : the art of Doris Lee / Melissa Wolfe ; with essays by John Fagg, Tom Wolf, Barbara L. Jones.
Author
Wolfe, M. Melissa, 1963-
Publication
Greensburg, PA : The Westmoreland Museum of Art ; Lewes, UK : D Giles Limited, 2020.

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextUse in library ND237.L5 A4 2020gOff-site

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Details

Additional Authors
  • Dixon Gallery and Gardens, host institution.
  • Fagg, John, 1977-
  • Figge Art Museum, host institution.
  • Jones, Barbara L.,
  • Lee, Doris, 1905-1983,
  • Torbert, Amy,
  • Vero Beach Museum of Art, host institution.
  • Westmoreland Museum of Art, issuing body, host institution.
  • Wolf, Tom (Tom M.),
Description
239 pages : color illustrations; 29 cm
Summary
Simple Pleasures' presents the first major critical assessment of works by the artist Doris Lee (1904-1983). Lee was one of the most recognized artists in America during the 1930s and 40s, and was a leading figure in the Woodstock Artist's Colony. Her oeuvre reveals a remarkable ability to merge the reduction of abstraction with the appeal of the everyday. In so doing, she offers one of the very rare examples of a coherent visual identity that successfully bridged the various artistic "camps" that formed with the shift in the art world in the post-World War II era. 'Simple Pleasures' explores the initial national recognition in the 1930s within the context of American Scene painting, and traces the artist's thematic interest in the simple objects and scenes of the everyday through her career. It also examines the influence of the rise in abstraction during the late 1940s and 1950s, and the particular way in which this abstraction found resonance with Lee's long-held interest in, and collections of, folk and non-western art. During this post-war period, Lee, like many of her American Scene colleagues, found lucrative work in the heyday of commercial advertising. Lee's commercial commissions for patrons such as American Tobacco Company, Life magazine, Abbott Laboratories, and Associated American Artists are especially compelling in both their populist accessibility and in their deceptively sophisticated abstraction. Sixty-five works by the artist span the 1930s through the 1960s and are comprised of paintings, drawings, prints, and commissioned commercial designs in fabric and pottery. Included are advertisements by companies that commissioned images from Lee, and photographs that contextualize the artist's work within the Woodstock artist's community.00Exhibition: Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, USA (26.09.2021-09.01.2022).
Alternative Title
Art of Doris Lee
Subject
  • 1900-1999
  • Lee, Doris, 1905-1983
  • Lee, Doris, 1905-1983 > Exhibitions
  • Painters
  • Painters > United States > Biography
  • Painting, American
  • Painting, American > 20th century > Exhibitions
  • United States
Genre/Form
  • Biographies
  • Exhibition catalogs
  • Exhibition catalogs.
Note
  • "This catalog accompanies the exhibition 'The art of Doris Lee' on view at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, PA, September 26, 2021-January 9, 2022; Figge Art Museum, Davenport, IA, February 5-May 8, 2022; Vero Beach Museum of Art, Vero Beach, FL, June 5-September 18, 2022; Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN, October 30, 2022-January 15, 2023"--Colophon.
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (pages 232-233) and index.
Contents
Simple joys and serious painting / Melissa Wolfe -- Doris Lee's senses of humor and history / John Fagg -- Doris Lee in Woodstock / Tom Wolf -- Into the commercial realm / Barbara L. Jones -- The art of Doris Lee -- Doris Emrick Lee chronology / Amy Torbert.
Call Number
ND237.L5
ISBN
  • 9781911282679
  • 1911282670
Owning Institutions
Columbia University Libraries