Today we’d like to introduce you to Lee Waisler.
Lee was born on February 25, 1938, in Hollywood, California to a politically progressive Jewish family. Growing up in West Hollywood, Waisler was surrounded by the movie business and those aspiring to be in it, which, Waisler says, came to be an important part of his development. Waisler attended the Hollywood Academy of Arts from the age of seven. At the time Waisler was growing up, the Abstract expressionism movement was gaining popularity. Waisler became interested in abstraction and was influenced by artists like Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still.
Early work
Waisler’s first solo show took place at the Ryder Gallery in Los Angeles, 1968. Waisler exhibited a series of figurative color etching. Much of the work Waisler produced in his early career was socially and politically charged, relating to the Holocaust, civil rights, the Vietnam War, and the anti-nuclear cause.
Public works
In 1981, responding to a critic’s negative review of his anti-nuclear work, Waisler dumped 5 tons of horse manure at the entrance to the LA Times. The dump truck that deposited the manure had a sign reading “A critic’s choice.” The dump symbolized Waisler’s frustration over the control art critics had over artists and the causes to which they directed their work. Waisler received international media coverage with mixed reception from artists and political sources. In spite of rejections, Waisler continued anti-nuclear and anti-war works in painting, sculpture, and public works.
Later that year, Waisler began the project entitled “Target LA” to spread anti-nuclear awareness. Using stencils to spray paint a stop-sign-within-a-target logo across the Los Angeles area, Waisler invited the public to a culminating event at the L.A. city hall for the presentation of another public work called “Bomb Cage.” The sculpture consists of 8 World War II-era bombshells encased within an octagonal wooden structure. The sculpture is presented covered by a black parachute. When the parachute is withdrawn, hundreds of black balloons escape from inside the sculpture. The balloons represent the nuclear fallout of a bomb exploding at that location. The sculpture was presented as a gift to the city of Los Angeles but was rejected. It was later sent to Hamburg, Germany and installed at the headquarters of the “Greens” political party.
Continuing his anti-nuclear public works, in 1985 Waisler constructed “Under the Mushroom”, a 5-story tall, 50-foot wide black mushroom-cloud inflatable as a movable sculpture. The work is first exhibited in Amsterdam where the artist invited the crowd to assist in deflation by trampling the sculpture as a symbol of nuclear disarmament. The sculpture went on to be exhibited approximately 30 times internationally with public participation at each showing.
Paintings
Waisler’s paintings deal with a variety of social, political, and symbolic themes. His interest in the abstract expressionists that came to popularity during his youth (particularly Mark Rothko) influenced his work greatly. Waisler’s early paintings were much more formal and ethereal, eventually moving on to integrating human figures into monumental, minimal, and architectural forms. From there, Waisler began to experiment with non-traditional materials: first wood, then sand, earth, and silicone carbonate. Waisler also uses recurring imagery and colors as symbols to develop a dialogue between paintings and events, such as his Holocaust memorials.
Waisler uses a variety of materials, both in paintings and sculpture that double as representative symbols. Wood, a recurring element in Waisler’s paintings, symbolizes life and shelter. Sand is used to represent time, various forms of Earth to represent power, and various forms of carbon to represent life. Waisler has also used ash and stone in his Holocaust memorials. The materials serve both symbolic and formal purposes. Waisler often layers multiple materials with paint to create high-impasto surfaces on his works, adding to other formal properties. Additionally, Waisler uses light-reflective materials and paints to explore the symbolism of light with the belief that life is transferred by light.
New Delhi
In 1996 Waisler was invited to exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New Delhi. In 1998, Waisler spent four months in India producing the work for the exhibition. In order to avoid the effect of a colonial installation, Waisler produced all the work in India so as to reflect Indian culture and philosophy in both theme and materials. A central theme of the works from this period was Mandala imagery and the meditative response that it evokes. Waisler also produced an anti-colonialist sculpture called “IMF Lifesaver”, a large lifesaver shape made of barbed wire. The Mandala symbol continued as a recurring theme in Waisler paintings after the exhibition.
Current work
In the early 2000s, Waisler began to paint portraits of people, which has continued to the present day. Some figures painted include Albert Einstein, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Rosa Parks, Paul Celan, Virginia Woolf, Aung San Suu Kyi, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Ethel Rosenberg. Waisler also continues to produce other figurative and abstract works and sculptures and exhibit worldwide.
Please tell us about your art.
Inspiration comes from work, the most effective way to find inspiration is by working.
The Artist’s intention/idea of a work takes precedence over the means by which the work is executed.
The varied subject matter of my work issues from reactions that I have to people, events and ideas. With reference to the portraits, I believe that certain individuals have been significant in the development of world culture. Some of those who have advanced social justice are now being diminished or marginalized. I want those people to be remembered.
Over the years, my painting has developed sculptural qualities with the inclusion of dimensional elements such as wood, sand, and glass. These materials themselves have come with strong symbolic associations. Wood is life, a living material. Glass is reflective and introspective. Sand is the ancient symbol of time.
Through the use of these means and others, I wish to create a unique interaction between the viewer and the painting: a kind of confluence resulting in deepening insight via imaginative perception.
What do you think is the biggest challenge facing artists today?
Because there is so much art, it is hard for young artist’s to be seen. Most artists do not know about marketing or the business of art.
Where can people see your work?
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France
Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA
Cedars Sinai Collection, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Coldwell Banker, Minneapolis, MN
Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara, Italy
Indian Museum, Calcutta, India
Israeli Embassy, Paris, France
Jewish Museum, New York, NY, USA
Karnataka Chitrakala Parishad Museum, Bangalore, India
Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Magnes Museum, Berkeley, CA, USA
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA
National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, India
Rijksmuseum Twenthe, Enschede, Netherlands
Sanskriti Kendra Museum, New Delhi, India
Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA
Standard Oil, Chicago, IL, USA
Stanford University Library, Palo Alto, CA, USA
Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
Tibet House, New York, NY, USA
U.C.L.A. Medical Art Program, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England
William Rockhill Nelson Gallery, Kansas City, MO, USA
Yad Mordechai Museum, Ashkelon, Israel
Yad Vashem Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
Yale University Library, New Haven, CT, USA
Contact Info:
- Address: 516 Sunset Avenue
Los Angeles, CA, 90291
United States - Website: leewaislerstudio.com
- Phone: (310)430-0680
- Email: leewaisler1@gmail.com
Image Credit:
Stephen Baumbach
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