An American abstract expressionist painter

John Harrison Levee (April 10, 1924 – January 18, 2017) is a major American abstract expressionist painter who worked in Paris from 1949 to his death in 2017.

Childwood

John Levee was born and grew up in Los Angeles in a family with creative influences from cinema and performing arts. His mother Roze Levee was a former silent film actress originally from Montana. His father Michael Charles Levee (1891 – 1972) was an American film executive in Hollywood and one of the founding members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and served as President from 1931 to 1932. The Academy is know around the world for its annual Academy Awards, "The Oscars".

An American veteran

During World War II, John Harrison Levee decided to enlist. He joined the U.S. Air Force and completed a military training as a pilot officer of Boeing B-29 Superfortress. John Levee participated in the liberation of France in 1944 with the U.S. Air Force as a pilot officer between 1944 and 1946.

After WWII, John Levee resumed his studies at the University of California (UCLA Art Center School) in 1946 and received a master's degree in philosophy from UCLA in 1948 at the age of 22, completing the four-year program in two years through hard work.

During his university studies, John Levee took evening painting classes at the Chenard Art School in Los Angeles, California. 

After his graduation, John Levee was approached by the airlines to become a commercial pilot which he refused. What he really wanted was to be a painter and see France again and this time as an Artist. 

John Levee left California for the New School for Social Research in New York where he studied in 1948 and 1949 and received a G.I. Bill scholarship.

Paris - France

Thanks to the G.I. Bill, John Levee left New York and went back to France to further his studies arriving in Paris in 1949 like many American painters. 

John Levee enrolled at the Académie Julian from 1949 to 1951 where he met a fellow American artist, Sam Francis, another G.I. Bill recipient exploring abstraction.

Contrary to Sam Francis, John Levee decided to stay in Paris to work as a painter in Montparnasse. 

Later and besides his painting activities, John Levee taught Art at different U.S. Universities: University of Illinois (now University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) in 1965, Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri in 1967, New York University in 1967-1968 and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles in 1970-1971.

Abstract Expressionism and Hard Edge 

His early painting was part of the abstract expressionism of the New York School, which included Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Ad Reinhardt, Willem de Kooning and Philip Guston, among others. 

After a period of hard-edge painting based on geometric abstraction in the 1960s-1970s, John Levee returned to his more spontaneous abstract expressionist style, often using collage elements with loose brush work typical of lyrical abstraction.

International recognition

John Levee had his life devoted to painting for over 65 years. He established an international reputation with numerous exhibitions worldwide. 

He received numerous international awards and fellowships throughout his long career.

John Levee's work is held in major private and public collections, including the MoMA, the Guggenheim and Whitney museums (New York), among others.