LEE MULLICAN
The Nest Revived, 1948
Oil on canvas
25 x 30 in.
63.5 x 76.2 cm
JCG14822
LEE MULLICAN
Untitled, c. 1950s
Acrylic on wood and twine
26 x 37 x 8 1/4 in.
55.9 x 94 x 21 cm
JCG13555
LEE MULLICAN
Untitled (The Owl), 1949
Oil on canvas
36 x 26 3/4 in.
91.4 x 68 cm
JCG9333
LEE MULLICAN
Untitled, c. 1950s
Painted wood
18 1/2 x 6 x 2 1/2 in.
47 x 15.2 x 6.3 cm
JCG14816
LEE MULLICAN
The Source - West, 1981
signed and dated on verso
oil on canvas
80 x 50 in
203.2 x 127 cm
JCG10360
LEE MULLICAN
The Source - East, 1981
Signed and dated on verso
oil on canvas
80 x 50 in
203.2 x 127 cm
JCG10359
LEE MULLICAN
Effigy Pot, Snake Priest, 1985
Fired and glazed ceramic
14 1/4 x 5 1/2 x 4 3/4 in.
36.2 x 14 x 12.1 cm
JCG11228
LEE MULLICAN
Untitled, 1985
Fired and glazed ceramic
18 1/2 x 8 1/2 x 7 in.
47 x 21.6 x 17.8 cm
JCG11234
LEE MULLICAN
Allegory, 1963
Oil on canvas
75 x 100 in.
190.5 x 254 cm
JCG11250
LEE MULLICAN
Untitled, 1965
Oil on canvas
75 x 100 in.
190.5 x 254 cm
JCG8540
LEE MULLICAN
El Centro, 1958
Oil on canvas
40 x 30 in.
101.6 x 76.2 cm
JCG11137
LEE MULLICAN
Section Implanted, 1948
Oil on canvas
29 7/8 x 39 7/8 in.
75.9 x 101.3 cm
JCG8898
LEE MULLICAN
Actor in Overture, 1949
Oil on Canvas
30 1/8 x 40 in.
76.5 x 101.6 cm
JCG8899
LEE MULLICAN
Untitled, 1950
Crayon and ink on paper
23 1/2 x 18 1/2 in.
59.7 x 47.0 cm
JCG9593
LEE MULLICAN
Galaxie, 1965
Spray paint, acrylic and pastel on paper
29 x 23 in
73.7 x 58.4 cm
JCG9354
LEE MULLICAN
Summer world, 1965
Oil, acrylic, and pastel on paper
30 1/2 x 25 1/2 in.
77.5 x 64.8 cm
JCG9347
LEE MULLICAN
At the Amphitheater, 1965
Oil, ink and graphite on paper
29 x 23 in.
73.7 x 58.4 cm
JCG9343
LEE MULLICAN
Untitled, 1949
Oil on canvas
30 x 40 1/4 in.
76.2 x 101.6 cm
JCG9061
LEE MULLICAN
Untitled, c. 1949
Oil on canvas
70 1/2 x 44 in.
179.1 x 111.8 cm
JCG9586
LEE MULLICAN
Shatter Passage, 1965
Oil on canvas
75 1/2 x 75 3/4 in.
191.8 x 192.4 cm
JCG9268
LEE MULLICAN
Untitled, c. 1980-81
Oil on canvas
50 x 40 in.
127 x 101.6 cm
JCG10364
LEE MULLICAN
Ascension, 1967
Oil on canvas
50 x 34 7/8 in.
127 x 88.6 cm
JCG9275
LEE MULLICAN
Festival of Stars and Planets, 1964
Oil on canvas
75 5/8 x 75 5/8 in.
192.1 x 192.1 cm
JCG9266
LEE MULLICAN
The Sleeping Gypsy, 1964
Oil on canvas
75 x 75 in.
190.5 x 190.5 cm
JCG9267
LEE MULLICAN
Space Mix, 1967
Oil on canvas
50 x 50 in.
127 x 127 cm
JCG9331
LEE MULLICAN
Untitled, 1971
Oil on canvas
74 3/4 x 74 3/4 in.
189.9 x 189.9 cm
JCG9269
LEE MULLICAN
Entrance of the Entertainers, 1967
Oil on canvas
50 x 35 in.
127 x 88.9 cm
JCG9274
LEE MULLICAN
Flying, 1965
Oil on canvas
50 x 40 in.
127 x 101.6 cm
JCG9273
LEE MULLICAN
Answers from Another World, 1968
Oil on canvas
75 x 75 in.
190.5 x 190.5 cm
JCG9272
LEE MULLICAN
Crosscut, 1971
Oil on canvas
50 x 50 in.
127 x 127 cm
JCG9276
LEE MULLICAN
Sounds and Stains, 1962
Oil on canvas
50 x 35 in.
127 x 88.9 cm
JCG8529
LEE MULLICAN
Meditation on the Vertical, 1962
Oil on canvas
75 x 75 in.
190.5 x 190.5 cm
JCG8539
LEE MULLICAN
The Arrival of the Quetzalcoatl, 1963
Oil on canvas
60 x 50 in.
152.4 x 127 cm
JCG8530
LEE MULLICAN
Transfigured Night, 1962
Oil on canvas
75 x 75 in.
190.5 x 190.5 cm
JCG8526
LEE MULLICAN
Caravan to the Sun, 1957
Oil on canvas
50 x 40 in.
127 x 101.6 cm
JCG8536
LEE MULLICAN
Specter on New Sun, 1949
Oil on board
30 x 20 in.
76.2 x 50.8 cm
JCG8534
LEE MULLICAN
Angry Act, 1965
Oil, acrylic, and pastel on paper
25 1/2 x 30 1/2 in.
64.8 x 77.5 cm
JCG9348
LEE MULLICAN
Untitled, 1965
Oil, ink and pastel on paper
29 x 23 in.
73.7 x 58.4 cm
JCG9352
LEE MULLICAN
Untitled, 1965
Mixed media on paper
24 x 18 in.
60.9 x 45.7 cm
JCG8557
LEE MULLICAN
Linked worlds, 1965
Oil, acrylic, and pastel on paper
29 x 23 in.
73.7 x 58.4 cm
JCG9351
LEE MULLICAN
Spring Breaks, 1968
Pencil and ink on paper
24 x 19 in.
61 x 48.2 cm
JCG8556
LEE MULLICAN
Untitled, 1965
Oil, ink and pastel on paper
29 x 23 in.
73.7 x 58.4 cm
JCG9344
LEE MULLICAN
Untitled, 1966
Oil, acrylic, and pastel on paper
24 1/4 x 19 3/4 in.
61.6 x 50.2 cm
JCG9279
LEE MULLICAN
Untitled, 1963
Acrylic on paper
13 5/8 x 10 3/8 in.
34.6 x 26.4 cm
JCG9211
LEE MULLICAN
Untitled, 1963
Acrylic on paper
13 5/8 x 10 3/8 in.
34.6 x 26.4 cm
JCG9206
The late California artist Lee Mullican’s paintings are a uniquely West Coast exploration into abstraction; one that is grounded in content, full of mysticism and connections to the transcendent. Mullican describes, “We were involved with a kind of meditation, and for me this had a great deal to do with the study of nature, and the study of pattern…We were dealing with art as a way of meditation.” This outlook was in contrast to the heroic, action-driven work being made by his contemporaries, the New York School of Abstract Expressionists, on the East Coast.
His productive sixty-year career was launched in San Francisco as one of three artists who identified as the Dynaton Group. Through a chance meeting, he became close to Gordon Onslow Ford and later met the Surrealist painter, Wolfgang Paalen, who had published the influential Dyn Magazine. Their shared interests culminated in the seminal Dynaton exhibition at San Francisco Museum of Art in 1951.
Always a seeker, Mullican culled influences from a wide range including his job as a topographer during WWII from which he developed the mapmaker’s bird’s-eye perspective, to Surrealism’s automatism, to Zen Buddism and later from his studies of the tantric art of India, finding a kinship with the conflation of concepts of outer and inner-space.
Through a close exploration of nature and the prehistoric past, Mullican focused on finding new meanings through formal problems of composition, color and mark making. He created a unique method of applying paint to the canvas with the thin edge of a printer’s knife, building up the surface with textured, fine lines--a technique he referred to as striation.
Lee Mullican was born in Chickasha, Oklahoma in 1919 and died in Los Angeles in 1998. He attended the Kansas City Art Institute after transferring from the University of Oklahoma in 1941. Upon his graduation from the Institute in 1942, Mullican was drafted into the army, serving for four years as a topographical draughtsman. Mullican traveled to Hawaii, Guam and Japan before ending his tenure in the army in 1946, when he moved to San Francisco. After winning a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in 1959, he spent a year painting in Rome before returning to Los Angeles where he joined the teaching staff of the UCLA Art Department in 1961, keeping his position for nearly 30 years. He divided the later part of his life between his homes in Los Angeles and Taos, traveling internationally and co- organizing exhibitions at UCLA. Mullican’s works are included in the permanent collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Hammer Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as in numerous other institutions.
The late California artist Lee Mullican’s paintings are a uniquely West Coast exploration into abstraction; one that is grounded in content, full of mysticism and connections to the transcendent. Mullican describes, “We were involved with a kind of meditation, and for me this had a great deal to do with the study of nature, and the study of pattern…We were dealing with art as a way of meditation.” This outlook was in contrast to the heroic, action-driven work being made by his contemporaries, the New York School of Abstract Expressionists, on the East Coast.