Lee Mullican
American painter, curator, and art teacher
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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, that took its name from a 1951 exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, organized by Grace McCann Morley.[3][4]
Lee Mullican | |
|---|---|
Lee Mullican (1970) in his Santa Monica residence | |
| Born | December 2, 1919 Chickasha, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Died | 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 |
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]
