Wake

Wake

Lee MullicanWW-1949-114908
1949·oil on canvas·127 × 101.6 cm (50 × 40 in.)

<p>To create this work’s distinctive texture, Lee Mullican used a blunt straight-edge printer’s knife to build up highlights. Forming a line of paint on the edge of the blade, he then pressed it onto the canvas. The resulting surface produces a shimmering visual effect as figural elements come in and out of focus. These forms express Mullican’s belief in the interconnectedness of inner and cosmic dimensions, a concept drawn from Chickasaw spiritual influences that the artist encountered growing up in Oklahoma. As Mullican later described, “I thought space, both the inner space of the psyche and the cosmos, were the ultimate dimensions for art, and you could say they are both the same. Many ancient peoples knew that. Modern art just needed to catch up.”</p>

Catalogue

Year
1949
Dimensions
127 × 101.6 cm (50 × 40 in.)

Artist

Lee Mullican
Lee Mullican

Painting

Lee Mullican was an American painter and muralist working in abstraction and surrealist-inflected figuration from the 1940s onward. His practice engaged with automatic drawing, biomorphic forms, and gestural mark-making, positioning his work within postwar abstract currents while maintaining a lyrical, often dreamlike sensibility. Mullican's approach bridged European surrealism and American gestural abstraction, with particular attention to the relationship between accident and intention in the painting process.

Santa Monica, CA, USA

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More

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The Mountain

The Mountain

1969 · Lithograph

WW-1969-M057605
The Wave

The Wave

1969 · Lithograph

WW-1969-M057577
Untitled from Fables

Untitled from Fables

1965 · One from a portfolio of twelve lithographs

WW-1965-M067303
Untitled from Hungry Ghosts

Untitled from Hungry Ghosts

1965 · One from a portfolio of twelve lithographs (including title page and colophon)

WW-1965-M066921
Untitled from Fables

Untitled from Fables

1965 · One from a portfolio of twelve lithographs

WW-1965-M067293
Jam Passage

Jam Passage

1965 · Lithograph

WW-1965-M067305

Record

Verified by WattsOS
Year
1949
Dimensions
127 × 101.6 cm (50 × 40 in.)
Watts ID
WW-1949-114908

Source

Source
aic
Status
verified

Artist

Lee Mullican

Lee Mullican

Painting

View artist profile →