The Age of the Desert

Lee Mullican

1957 · Oil on canvas · Modern and Contemporary Art

This work is a prime example of California painter Lee Mullican’s mid-career technique, where abstracted motifs derived from his study of works by Native American, Japanese, and pre-Columbian artists are accented by applications of shimmering, raised lines of paint applied to the surface of the canvas using the thin edge of a printmaker’s ink knife. Mullican’s paintings from the 1940s and ‘50s seek to combine the immediacy of desert landscapes and aerial mapping (something he was tasked with when serving in the army during World War II) with the more spiritual energies of Zen Buddhism, Native American cultures, Polynesian signs and symbols, and other touchstones.

Artist

Lee Mullican

Date

1957

Medium

Oil on canvas

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 2016