“Once Upon a Time in Woodstock" at the Figge Art Museum -- April 21. (pictured: Doris Lee's "Beach Party")
Thursday, April 21, 6:30 p.m.
Figge Art Museum, 225 West Second Street, Davenport IA
Held in conjunction with the Davenport venue's current exhibition Simple Pleasures: The Art of Doris Lee, the April 21 celebration Once Upon a Time in Woodstock will find the Figge Art Museum hosting an evening inspired by the community of artists active in Woodstock, New York, during the 1930s and 1940s, and boasting an art talk, an art activity, and even wardrobe art in the colorful outfits sure to be on display.
A gifted artist and Aledo, Illinois, native known for her beautiful and evocative figurative painting and printmaking, Doris Lee was born in 1905, graduated from Rockford College in 1927, and studied with the American Impressionist and Ashcan School painter Ernest Lawson at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1929. At the institute, she also met painter Arnold Blanch, whom she later married after her 1939 divorce from Russell Lee, and she attended the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco in 1930. After her schooling, Lee moved to Woodstock, New York, and established herself as an artist in that community, settling there for the remainder of her artistic career.
During the 1930s, Lee was commissioned to create several murals by the United States Treasury Department in Washington, DC, and in 1937, she painted two murals in the Main Post Office in Washington, DC, and another in the post office in Summerville, Georgia. That same year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired her 1936 painting Catastrophe for its permanent collection, and her 1935 painting Noon was later referenced in Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. During the 1930s and '40s, Lee created a number of lithographs for the Associated American Artists, after which she undertook several commissions for Life magazine, including articles and illustrations on travel to such places as North Africa, Mexico, and Cuba. During this time, her work became much more stylized with more concern to color and pure forms.
The first major critical assessment of Lee’s superlative works, the Figge's Simple Pleasures exhibit reveals Lee's remarkable ability to merge abstraction with the appeal of the everyday, offering a distinctive visual identity that successfully bridged various artistic “camps” that arose in the post–World War II era. Simple Pleasures includes more than 70 works by the artist spanning the 1930s through the 1960s from both public and private collections; features paintings, drawings, prints, and commercial designs in fabric and pottery. The exhibition also boasts a selection of ephemera, such as product advertisements by companies that commissioned images from Lee.
Known for its picturesque beauty and not far from New York City, Woodstock has long been a gathering spot for artists, among them Lee, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Lucile Blanch, and others. At the Once Upon a Time in Woodstock event, patrons are invited to learn more about the area’s fascinating history and the artists who worked there during a talk by Assistant Curator Vanessa Sage, followed by a Woodstock-inspired art activity. Themed attire is encouraged, so attendees are encouraged to break out their finest A-line skirts and Hawaiian shirts.
The Once Upon a Time in Woodstock celebration will take place on April 21 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., a cash bar will be open from 5 to 7:30 p.m., and admission to the in-person event is free. Simple Pleasures itself is on display through May 8, and more information on the exhibit and event is available by calling (563)326-7804 and visiting FiggeArtMuseum.org.
