John Levee
Biography
John Levee (April 10, 1924 – January 18, 2017) was an American abstract expressionist painter who had worked in Paris since 1949. His father was M. C. Levee. John Harrison Levee received a master's degree in philosophy from UCLA and became an aviator in the Second World War. After the war he decided to stay to work as a painter in Montparnasse. He studied art at the Art Center School in Los Angeles and at Académie Julian in Paris from 1949 to 1951.Career
His early painting was inspired by the New York School of Abstract Expressionism, which included Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Ad Reinhardt, Willem de Kooning and Philip Guston, among others. After a period of hard-edge painting based on geometric abstraction in the 1960s, Levee returned to his more spontaneous Abstract Expressionism style, often using collage elements with loose brush work typical of lyrical abstraction.
John Levee - Abstract Composition
Abstract Composition - 1954
Oil on Canvas
21 x 25 inches (54cm x 64.7cm)
Signed and Dated
Provenance: Gimpel Fils Gallery, London
John Levee - Abstract Composition
Abstract Composition - 1957
Gouache and Ink on Paper
12.75 x 3.5 inches
Signed and Dated
John Levee - Abstract Composition
Abstract Composition - 1956
Oil, Ink and Gouache on Paper
9.5 x 16.25 inches
Signed and Dated
John Levee - Abstract Composition
Abstract Composition - 1953
Oil on Paper
8 x 20 inches
Signed and Dated
John Levee - March II
March II - 1960
Oil on Canvas
59 x 20 inches
Signed, Dated & Titled on Verso
Andre Emmerich Gallery Label on Verso
John Levee - November VI
November VI - 1958
Oil on Canvas
9.5 x 7.5 inches (24cm x 19cm)
Signed, Dated and Titled 1958
John Levee - September IV
September IV - 1958
Oil on Canvas
32 x 40 inches
Signed and Dated
Provenance: Andre Emmerich Gallery
John Levee - Untitled
John Levee
Untitled - 1953
Gouache on Paper
17 1/2 x 24 1/2 inches
Signed and Dated
Provenance: Private Collection, California