John Harrison Levée (1924-2017), Abstraction, Mixed Media

John Harrison LEVÉE (1924-2017)
composition 2004,
mixed technique and collage on panel, signed and dated,
102 x 50 cm,
stamp of the Musée de Saint Lô on the back


John Harrison Levee was born in California in Los Angeles, on April 10, 1924. In the 1942s John Levee, taken into military training, left as a Pilot Officer, and participated in the liberation of France with the United States Air Force as a Pilot Officer between 1944 and 1946. During his university studies, John Levee worked in the evening painting class at the Chenard Art School Los Angeles, California. He also studied philosophy and art at the University of California Los Angeles, California, (UCLA 1948 Bachelor's of Art) and when he graduated in philosophy, he devoted himself entirely to painting. Asked after the war by American airlines to be an airline pilot, he preferred the life of a painter and left for the New School of Social Research in New York where he worked in 1948 and 1949 in the company of Stuart Davis, Abbe Rattner, Kuniyoshi and obtained a GI Bill scholarship (American government scholarship). He left New York for France where he arrived in 1949, like many American painters and found himself at the Académie Julian in 1950 in the company of Sam Francis. Later he taught at the Universities Washington University of Saint Louis, State of Missouri, Ville de Champagne, Illinois State University (1965), New York (New York University) in 1967-1968 and Southern California (Southern California University of Los Angeles) in 1971. John Levee participated in the development of "hard edge", consisting of geometric shapes clearly defined in relation to each other as well as shapes painted in flat tints, in reaction to gestural abstract painting considered too lyrical. Then, the artist became interested in the use of mixed techniques on cardboard, assuming an abstraction further removed from this geometric art to which he had devoted a good part of his work. He regularly participates in the Salon des réalités nouvelles in Paris. The Huit gallery, which exhibits American painters, welcomes him in the company of John Franklin Koenig and Joe Downing and gives him his first solo exhibition. The critic Guy Marister of Combat noticed him and had him exhibit at the Salon de Mai, which was a reference at the time. At the Salon de Mai, Myriam Prévost, who ran the Galerie de France in Paris, and René Gimpel from London opened the doors of their galleries to him. Many exhibitions followed: '' American Painters in France '' Craven Gallery in 1953, '' Ten Young Painters of the School of Paris '' Galerie de France in 1956, '' Antagonisms '' Musée des Arts Décoratifs in 1960 and the famous annual exhibition '' L'Ecole de Paris '' at the Charpentier Gallery from 1958 to 1961. Later he taught at the Washington University of Saint Louis, State of Missouri, the City of Champagne, Illinois State University (1965), New York (New York University) in 1967-1968 and Southern California (Southern California University of Los Angeles) in 1971. John Levee was influenced by and participated in the development of the "hard edge", consisting of geometric shapes clearly defined in relation to each other as well as painted shapes in flat, in reaction to a gestural abstract painting considered too lyrical. In recent years, the artist has become interested in the use of mixed techniques on cardboard, assuming an abstraction further removed from this geometric art to which he had devoted a good part of his work. He regularly participates in the Salon des réalités nouvelles in Paris.