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

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

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

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

John Levee - Abstract Composition

Abstract Composition

Oil, Ink and Watercolor on Paperboard

11.25 x 25.25 inches

Signed and Dated 1954

Provenance:  From the Estate of Ernest Kafka

John Levee - Mai 5

John Levee - Mai 5

Mai 5 - 1959

Oil on Canvas

17 x 30 inches (44 cm x 77 cm )

Signed and Dated 

John Levee - Mai I

John Levee - Mai I

Mai I

Oil on Canvas

24 x 32 inches (61cm x 81cm)

Signed and Dated 1955

Provenance: From the Estate of Ernest Kafka

John Levee - March II

John Levee - March II

March II

Oil  on Canvas

15 x 18 inches

Signed and Dated 1957

Provenance: From the Estate of Ernest Kafka

John Levee - November VI

John Levee - November VI

November VI - 1958

Oil on Canvas

9.5 x 7.5 inches (24cm x 19cm)

Signed, Dated and Titled 1958

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