Lee Mullican (California / Oklahoma, 1919-1998), "Figure in Time", 1990, oil on canvas, with inscription on the verso including title, signature, and date; along with label from The Fenix Gallery (Taos, New Mexico)

sight: 30 x 25 in., frame: 34 x 29 in.

Provenance: Property from a home in Austin, Texas; originally purchased from The Fenix Gallery (Taos, New Mexico)

Lee Mullican's style is drawn from a variety of sources, most importantly, his position in the army as an aerial topographer in the early 1940s. In addition to studying under prominent Surrealist Gordon Onslow Ford and local artist Wolfgang Paalen, Mullican won the Guggenheim Fellowship, allowing him to study in Rome in 1959.  His works remain in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian, MoMA in both Paris and New York City, the San Francisco Museum of Art and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Lee Mullican's work was featured in an exhibition at The Art Institute of Chicago in 1951, which also featured works by Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell and Hans Hoffman. (sources: Levis Fine Art and Billings Auction)