Lee Mullican

Lee Mullican
Lee Mullican (1970) in his Santa Monica residence
Born	(1919-12-02)December 2, 1919 Chickasha, Oklahoma, U.S.
Died	(1998-07-07)July 7, 1998 Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Alma mater	Abilene Christian University, Kansas City Art Institute, University of Oklahoma
Known for	Painting, drawings
Movement	Dynaton, Surrealism
Spouse	Luchita Hurtado
Children	2, including Matt Mullican

Lee Mullican (December 2, 1919 – July 8, 1998) was an American painter, curator, and art teacher.[1][2] He was an influential member of the Dynaton Movement.[3][4]

Early life and education

Lee Mullican was born on December 2, 1919, in Chickasha, Oklahoma.[1] He studied at the Abilene Christian University in Texas, the University of Oklahoma, and the Kansas City Art Institute.[1]

During World War II, he was in the United States Army and served in Hawaii.[1]

Career and late life

He moved to San Francisco after the war in 1947.[1] Mullican was part of a 1951 exhibition called "Dynaton" held at the San Francisco Museum of Art.[5] Mullican was a member of the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture faculty from 1962 to 1990.[6]

His paintings were abstract and have a "rigid" and "linear" quality to them.[7] He applied paint with a printer's knife.[7] Mullicans work was influenced by cosmology, which is also a trait found in other Dynaton artists work.[8]

Mullican married artist Luchita Hurtado and they had two sons.[9] Their son Matt Mullican is an artist; and their son John Mullican is a writer and director.[9] He died on July 8, 1998, in Santa Monica, California.[1] In 2008, his son John Mullican released the documentary film, Finding Lee Mullican.[10][11]

References

1. Oliver, Myrna (1998-07-08). "Lee Mullican; Influential Surrealist Artist". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
2. "Review: Lee Mullican's colors crackle with energy". Los Angeles Times. 2014-11-03. Retrieved 2022-01-20.
3. Kimball Whiting. "Lee Mullican (1919-1998)". sullivangoss.com. Retrieved 2011-06-09..
4. Whiting, Sam (January 21, 2021). "Gertrud Parker, artist and founder of Museum of Craft and Folk Art, dead at 96". Datebook | San Francisco Arts & Entertainment Guide. Retrieved 2022-01-20.
5. "Art and soul : Internationally known Taos artist Lee Mullican dies". Taos News. July 16, 1998.
6. "UCLA Obituary: Lee Mullican". Retrieved 2011-06-09.
7. Yau, John (2016-06-12). "Restless and Rigid". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 2022-01-20.
8. Schwendener, Martha (2015-07-16). "Review: 'All Watched Over' Contemplates Art's Relationship to Technology". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-01-20.
9. Rea, Naomi (2020-08-14). "'Her Legacy Has Only Just Begun': Luchita Hurtado, the Protean Artist Who Gained Renown in Her Final Decade, Has Died at 99". Artnet News. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
10. Heffley, Lynne (2005-11-13). "The Patron of Their Arts". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2022-01-20.
11. "Remembering Luchita Hurtado, painter, eco-warrior and witness to a century of art". The Art Newspaper. 2020-09-04. Retrieved 2022-01-20.

Further reading

• Eliel, Carol S., Lee Mullican, Amy Gerstler, and Lari Pittman. Lee Mullican an abundant harvest of sun (Los Angeles County Museum of Art: Los Angeles, 2005) ISBN 978-0-87587-194-3
• McCollum, Allan,"The Drawing Appears," in Lee Mullican: Selected Drawings, 1945-1980. University of California, Los Angeles (1999).
• Lee Mullican, "Selected Works," published by Galerie Schreiner, 1980

External links

• Oral history interview with Lee Mullican, 1992 May 22-1993 Mar. 4, from Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
• Interview of Lee Mullican, part of Los Angeles Art Community - Group Portrait interview series, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library Special Collections, University of California, Los Angeles.