# Lee Gatch > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Lee_Gatch > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Lee_Gatch.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Gatch > Source revision: 1264214297 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{short description|American artist}} {{Infobox artist | name = Lee Gatch | image = Photo of Lee Gatch.jpg | imagesize = | caption = | birth_name = Harry Lee Gatch | birth_date = {{birth date|1902|9|10|mf=y}} | birth_place = Baltimore, Maryland | death_date = {{death date and age|1968|11|10|1902|9|10|mf=y}} | death_place = Trenton, New Jersey | nationality = | education = | field = Painter | training = | movement = | works = | patrons = | awards = | spouse = | partner = }} '''Harry Lee Gatch''' (September 10, 1902 – November 10, 1968){{Cite web|url=http://www.michenermuseum.org/bucksartists/artist.php?artist=88|title=James A. Michener Art Museum - Bucks County Artists: Lee Gatch. Accessed 20 January 2013|access-date=20 January 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140302045736/http://www.michenermuseum.org/bucksartists/artist.php?artist=88|archive-date=2 March 2014|url-status=usurped}} was a twentieth-century American artist known for his lyrical abstractions and his ability to find "a fresh approach" to painting the figure and nature "through interwoven patterns of flattened figures" and a Fauvist-inspired sense of landscape.Barbara Rose, ''American Art Since 1900,'' (New York: Praeger, 1967), p. 134. == Biography == Harry Lee Gatch was born on September 10, 1902, in a rural community near [Baltimore](/source/Baltimore), Maryland. His family had no sympathy with his artistic aspirations, which was a source of pain throughout his life, but he was determined to make a name for himself as an artist.John Loughery, "The Lyrical Abstractions of Lee Gatch," pp. 78-80. Gatch graduated from the [Maryland Institute College of Art](/source/Maryland_Institute_College_of_Art) in the early 1920s; there a visiting instructor, New York painter [John Sloan](/source/John_French_Sloan), made a strong impression on him and confirmed him in his sense of his vocation.John Loughery, ''John Sloan: Painter and Rebel'' (New York: Henry Holt, 1995), p. 272. In 1924, in search of more advanced instruction and more exposure to modern art, he went to Europe and studied with the painter [Andre Lhote](/source/Andre_Lhote). While in Paris, he was a particularly avid student of the French modernism of [André Derain](/source/Andr%C3%A9_Derain), [Édouard Vuillard](/source/%C3%89douard_Vuillard), and [Pierre Bonnard](/source/Pierre_Bonnard), inspirations which are evident in his own refined color sense.Loughery, p. 79. According to the online biography of Gatch at the [Phillips Collection](/source/Phillips_Collection) website, Gatch exhibited in the [Venice Biennial](/source/Venice_Biennial)s of 1950 and 1956, and he was inducted into the [American Academy of Arts and Letters](/source/American_Academy_of_Arts_and_Letters) in 1957. Although he is best known for his nature-inspired [abstract](/source/abstract_art) works, he also worked for a time as a [muralist](/source/muralist) for the [Federal Art Project](/source/Federal_Art_Project), [painting murals](/source/List_of_United_States_post_office_murals)., ''Tobacco Industry'' in 1940 in [Mullins, South Carolina](/source/Mullins%2C_South_Carolina), and ''Squaw's Rest'', 1942. in [Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania](/source/Elizabethtown%2C_Pennsylvania).Park, Marlene and Gerald E. Markowitz, Democratic vistas: Post Offices and Public Art in the New Deal, Temple University Press, Philadelphia 1984 He was married in 1936 to [Precisionist](/source/Precisionism) artist [Elsie Driggs](/source/Elsie_Driggs). They had one child, Merriman Gatch. According to MarylandArtSource.com, "His abstract painting style combined elements of [Post-Impressionism](/source/Post-Impressionism), [Cubism](/source/Cubism), and [Symbolism](/source/Symbolism_(arts)) in mystical evocations of nature." The Phillips Collection article asserts that "Gatch strove throughout his career to maintain an individual style based on the American representational tradition while reaching beyond appearances to find meaning through design and color." Despite the admiration of discerning men like collector [Duncan Phillips](/source/Duncan_Phillips_(art_collector)) and the art dealer [J.B. Neumann](/source/Israel_Ber_Neumann), Gatch had a difficult time creating a stable career and attracting the critical and public attention he felt he deserved. His marriage to Driggs, who gave up her own career until Gatch's death in 1968, was source of essential support to him during his darker periods, and the couple lived a financially straitened life in rural Lambertville, New Jersey.Elsie Driggs Wikipedia entry. In the heyday of Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, and the other radical postwar movements, he was a little-known presence in American art. To his friend and one-time mentor, Max Kahn, he wrote in 1964, "It will always remain impossible for me to believe anyone will look me up after the bell tolls. It is perhaps best for me to do my task faithfully."Loughery, p. 80. In the view of one art critic, "Gatch [ultimately] found his own voice and equalled the best of Milton Avery, an artist with whom he has a kinship." After his death, Gatch was interred at [Woodlawn Cemetery](/source/Woodlawn_Cemetery_(Bronx%2C_New_York)) in the Bronx, New York.{{Cite web|title=Harry Lee Gatch Jr. (1902-1968) - Find A Grave...|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/96802575/harry-lee-gatch|access-date=2021-07-25|website=www.findagrave.com|language=en}} 400px|thumb|mural study, Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania Post Office, 1941 ==Collections== Gatch's work is in the collection of: *the [Guggenheim Museum](/source/Solomon_R._Guggenheim_Museum), *the [Whitney Museum of American Art](/source/Whitney_Museum_of_American_Art), *the [Metropolitan Museum of Art](/source/Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art){{Cite web |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/488761 |title=Lee Gatch | the Thorn | the Met |access-date=2019-12-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190710050115/https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/488761 |archive-date=2019-07-10 |url-status=live }} *the [Phillips Collection](/source/Phillips_Collection), *the [Smithsonian American Art Museum](/source/Smithsonian_American_Art_Museum),{{Cite web|url=https://americanart.si.edu/artist/lee-gatch-1746|title=Lee Gatch|website=Smithsonian American Art Museum|access-date=2019-12-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190710045844/https://americanart.si.edu/artist/lee-gatch-1746|archive-date=2019-07-10|url-status=live}} *the [National Gallery of Art](/source/National_Gallery_of_Art),{{Cite web|url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.5495.html|title=Artist Info|website=www.nga.gov|access-date=2019-12-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190710050212/https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.5495.html|archive-date=2019-07-10|url-status=live}} *the [Albright-Knox Art Gallery](/source/Albright-Knox_Art_Gallery),{{Cite web|url=https://www.albrightknox.org/artworks/19665-winter-stone|title=Winter Stone | Albright-Knox|website=www.albrightknox.org|access-date=2019-12-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191206024409/https://www.albrightknox.org/artworks/19665-winter-stone|archive-date=2019-12-06|url-status=live}} *the [Baltimore Museum of Art](/source/Baltimore_Museum_of_Art) and *the [Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts](/source/Pennsylvania_Academy_of_the_Fine_Arts).{{Cite web|url=https://www.pafa.org/collection-artists/lee-gatch|title=Lee Gatch | PAFA - Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts|website=www.pafa.org|access-date=2019-12-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190710050533/https://www.pafa.org/collection-artists/lee-gatch|archive-date=2019-07-10|url-status=live}} ==References== {{Reflist}} ==Sources== * Breeskin, Adelyn. ''Lee Gatch.'' Washington, D.C.: National Collection of Fine Arts, 1971. * ''Lee Gatch: Recent Paintings.'' Berne: Stampfli & Cie, 1963. [http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/1977645&referer=brief_results ''Lee Gatch, Recent Paintings''] (Berne : Stämpfli & Cie., 1963) [OCLC](/source/OCLC) 1977645 * ''Lee Gatch: Recent Paintings, 1954-1958.'' New York: World House Galleries, 1958. [http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/45616694&referer=brief_results ''Lee Gatch : Recent Paintings, 1954-1958''] (New York : World House Galleries, 1958) [OCLC](/source/OCLC) 45616694 * Loughery, John. "The Lyrical Abstractions of Lee Gatch." ''Arts Magazine'' (April 1988), pp. 78–80. * [Newark](/source/Newark%2C_New_Jersey) Museum. [http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/226692&referer=brief_results ''Lee Gatch, 1902-1968''] (Washington, Published for the National Collection of Fine Arts by the [Smithsonian Institution](/source/Smithsonian_Institution) Press, 1971) [OCLC](/source/OCLC) 226692 * Rathbone, Perry Townsend. ''Lee Gatch.'' Washington, D.C.: American Federation of Arts, 1960. [http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/1213277&referer=brief_results ''Lee Gatch''] (New York, 1960) [OCLC](/source/OCLC) 1213277 * [Washington University in St. Louis](/source/Washington_University_in_St._Louis). [Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art](/source/Kemper_Museum_of_Contemporary_Art). St. Louis, Mo. ==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070310234039/http://www.marylandartsource.org/artists/detail_000000161.html MarylandArtSource.com] *[http://www.askart.com/askart/g/lee_gatch/lee_gatch.aspx Askart.com] {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Gatch, Lee}} Category:1902 births Category:1968 deaths Category:Maryland Institute College of Art alumni Category:20th-century American painters Category:American male painters Category:Painters from Maryland Category:American modern painters Category:Artists from Baltimore Category:Federal Art Project artists Category:Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York) Category:20th-century American male artists Category:Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Lee Gatch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Gatch) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Gatch?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.