Biography

The work of John Levee is one of the best kept secrets for collectors of American abstract art. Whilst his contemporaries such as Sam Francis, Norman Bluhm and Joan Mitchell command the very highest prices for all their works, Levee is still accessible for those who wish to collect his work. He was one of the leading American artists in Paris during the post-war period and as such his pieces are perfect examples of the Abstract Expressionist movement which so characterises this period.

As with all of the greatest artists, he took a movement and its ideas and made it uniquely his own–Levee’s pieces are powerful without being overwhelming; they draw the eye and hold the attention of the viewer so as to reveal the many different levels, tones, variations and subtleties in the paint. Many criticise modernist painting and abstraction in particular, as being nothing but splodges of paint on a canvas, preferring to loose themselves in something with details that they can understand. It is the work of painters such as Levee who construct their images with such care and attention to detail who are slowly reversing this unfair belief. In some ways it is much harder to make something look effortlessly beautiful and utterly original than it is to replicate beauty which is inherent in people or landscapes which is there for anyone to see.

Born in 1924, Levée received a degree in Philosophy from UCLA before becoming embroiled in the Second World War where he became a pilot. It is possible that the taste of France he received whilst there during the War was what prompted him to return after he had qualified as a painter in 1949. In order to qualify though, Levee studied at both the Institute of Art in California, whose students included the like of Mark Rothko, Clifford Still and Richard Diebenkorn, and then to New York where he attended art school with Stuart Davis and Abbe Rattner. There is much speculation about whether it was this spell in New York where he met and mixed with those on the cutting edge of Abstraction in America which had the greatest affect on Levee or whether it was his time with the American’s in Paris.

He arrived back in Paris in 1949 and enrolled at the avant-garde Academie Julian in 1950 where he met fellow American artist Sam Francis. In 1951 he held his first solo exhibition at Galerie 8, and also began exhibiting at the Salond’ Automne, the Salon de Mai and the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles. Numerous exhibitions ensued including “Peintres les Americains en France” Galerie Craven in1953,“Dix Jeunes Peintres de l’Ecole de Paris ”Galerie de France in 1956,“Antagonismes”Musée des Arts Décoratifs in 1960, and the famous annual “L’Ecole de Paris” exhibitions at Galerie Charpentier from 1958-1961.It was in the 1960’s that he experimented with geometric abstraction which while popular amongst both fans and critics was taking him in a direction which he was not entirely comfortable. He returned to more spontaneous Abstract Expressionism style, often using collage elements with loose brush work typical of lyrical abstraction Levée also quickly established an international reputation, exhibiting at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1957 and 1958, the Whitney Museum NY in1957, 1959 and 1965, Carnegie Institue 1958, Museum of Modern Art Jerusalem1963,Phoenix Museum of Art Arizona 1964, Museum of Tel Aviv 1969, Palm Springs Museum 1977. Throughout this period he also held regular exhibitions at the New York art dealer Andre Emmerich and in London at Gimpel Fils. A major retrospective of the artist’s work was held at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Toulousein 1983.

The artist is represented in numerous major museums including: Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California; Yale University Art Gallery, Connecticut; Museum of Fine Arts, Ohio; Cincinnati Museum, Ohio; Museum of Contemporary Art, Texas; Carnegie Institute, Pennsylvania; Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland; Washington Gallery of Modern Art; Walker Arts Center, Minnesota; Whitney Museum of American Art; Basel; Haifa; Tel Aviv; Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.