Lee Hall (DG 2010, 2015), was an abstract expressionist, author and professor was born in Lexington, N.C. in 1934, and passed in South Hadley, MA in 2017. She spent most of her professional life in New York and Massachusetts. She became disillusioned with “the politics, money and complexities of the New York gallery system,” said Bechtler Museum of Art founding president and CEO John Boyer.
Although Hall abandoned the gallery scene decades ago, she never stopped painting. She became a professor and had as much passion for arts education as she did for creating her own art. She was equal parts academic and artist.
“Painting has been a vehicle for understanding life,” Hall said in a 1981 speech at the Rhode Island School of Design. No matter where she was, Hall was inspired by her surroundings. Her works each represent a specific place, as the titles indicate – “Barcelona Edges,” “Vermont Drift,” “Rhode Island Dawn.” They capture the character and colors of these places more than the details.
Hall left her estate to the Bechtler when she died in 2017. The proceeds from selling her entire body of work – and her home and its contents, including a 4,000-volume library – help fund the museum’s educational programs.
“Lee Hall was as significant to abstract expressionism as her peers who are famous enough to be known by one name – Pollock, Rothko, Motherwell. Those who admire Hall and her work believe it’s time we all knew her name.”
See “Lee Hall: On Paper,” on view through Jan. 11 at the Jerald Melberg Gallery.
Read the full article in the Charlotte Observer here.