Catherine Lee (painter)

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.{{Cite book|last1=Weaver|first1=Suzanne|title=Texas Women: A New History of Abstract Art|last2=Meador|first2=Lana|publisher=San Antonio Museum of Art|year=2020|isbn=978-1-883502-08-9|pages=58}} 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.{{cite book|author1=Jules Heller|author2=Nancy G. Heller|title=North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AYxmAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA332|date=19 December 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-63882-5|pages=332–}} 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.{{Cite web|title=Catherine Lee {{!}} Artnet|url=http://www.artnet.com/artists/catherine-lee/|access-date=2021-10-06|website=www.artnet.com}} Some of her sculptures are also available for purchase on Artnet.

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". 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."{{Cite web |last=Geha |first=Katie |date=2012-06-22 |title=Interview with Catherine Lee |url=https://glasstire.com/2012/06/21/interview-with-catherine-lee/ |access-date=2022-10-12 |website=Glasstire |language=en-US}} 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.

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. 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.Cathy Curtis, [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-07-01-ca-6271-story.html "Santa Monica"], Los Angeles Times, July 1, 1988. Accessed April 24, 2020. She often utilizes black and monochrome colors in her works because she appreciates the hostility these colors can bring to each piece.

In 2012, she was the featured artist of the West Texas Triangle, group of five art museums in western Texas.{{cite news|url=http://glasstire.com/2012/06/21/interview-with-catherine-lee/|title=Interview with Catherine Lee|last=Geha|first=Katie|date=21 June 2012|newspaper=Glasstire|access-date=6 September 2017}}{{cite web |url=http://www.westtexastriangle.com/about.html |title=About |website=West Texas Triangle |access-date=6 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170620094706/http://www.westtexastriangle.com/about.html |archive-date=20 June 2017 |url-status=dead }} Her work Unica 39 (1987), an "abstract monotype in color", is a part of the permanent exhibition in the Tate Gallery.{{cite web|url=http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/catherine-lee-2246 |title=Catherine Lee: Artworks |publisher=Tate Gallery |access-date=6 September 2017}} 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.{{cite web | url=https://www.lorareynolds.com/exhibitions/catherine-lee-time/ | title=Catherine Lee: Time }}

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).{{Cite web|url=http://www.artnet.com/artists/catherine-lee/biography|title=Catherine Lee Biography}}

• Indianapolis Museum of Art
• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston{{cite web | url=https://emuseum.mfah.org/people/27459/catherine-lee/objects?ctx=4582ea80287ab83e45c9a23ca3641f3c539c134f&idx=36 | title=Works | Catherine Lee | People | the MFAH Collections }}
• Tate Gallery, London
• The Metropolitan Opera,
• Museum of Modern Art{{cite book|title=Catherine Lee the Alphabet Series and Other Works|publisher=University of Washington Press|year=1997|isbn=096597460X}}
• Lora Reynolds gallery
• Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas{{Cite web|title=Collection Landing|url=https://www.nashersculpturecenter.org/art/collection#!/artcollection/f/detail/object/3223/6657?artist=catherine-lee&title=dragon-clad|access-date=2021-10-07|website=www.nashersculpturecenter.org}}

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

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."{{Cite web |last=Sweeney |first=Gary |title=Artist on Artist: Gary Sweeney interviews Catherine Lee |url=https://www.sacurrent.com/arts/artist-on-artist-gary-sweeney-interviews-catherine-lee-2324902 |access-date=2022-10-12 |website=San Antonio Current |language=en}} She spent the majority of her career living and working in New York, NY.

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• [http://catherinelee.net/ Catherine Lee home page]

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Category:1950 births

Category:American contemporary painters

Category:People from Pampa, Texas

Category:20th-century American women painters

Category:20th-century American painters

Category:Living people

Category:21st-century American women painters

Category:21st-century American painters

Category:San Jose State University alumni