Simple Pleasures: The Art of Doris Lee

Simple Pleasures: The Art of Doris Lee presents the first major critical assessment of works by the artist Doris Lee (1905 – 1983). Lee was one of the most recognized artists in the country during the 1930s and 40s and a leading figure in the Woodstock Artist’s Colony. In response to the rise of Abstract Expressionism in the decades after World War II, Lee deftly absorbed these innovations into a continuation of her own visual style. Lee’s body of work reveals a remarkable ability to merge the reduction of abstraction with the appeal of the everyday and offers a coherent visual identity that successfully bridged various artistic “camps” that arose in the post-World War II era.

Co-curated by Barbara L. Jones and Melissa Wolfe, Curator of American Art, Saint Louis Art Museum, Simple Pleasures will include approximately 65 works by the artist spanning from the 1930s through the 1960s from both public and private collections and be comprised of paintings, drawings, prints, and commissioned commercial designs in fabric and pottery.  There will also be a small group of ephemera, such as advertisements by companies that commissioned images from Lee. A fully illustrated, full-color catalogue with four essays will accompany the exhibition.

Image Credit Line: Doris Emerick Lee (1905 – 1983), Oranges and Avocados, 1945, Oil on canvas, 16 x 20 inches, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Booth, Jr. and Burrell Group, Inc., 2009.10, Collection: The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, PA.