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UCLA Obituary: Lee Mullican

Carolyn Campbell (ccampbel@arts.ucla.edu) (310) 825-6540
For Immediate Use Wednesday, July 15, 1998.

Lee Mullican, an abstract, "Dynaton" surrealist artist and former UCLA faculty member, died July 7 in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 79.

Mullican was a member of the UCLA art faculty since 1962, when he was appointed lecturer. He was awarded an assistant professorship in 1963 and moved up the academic ladder, retiring in1990 as a full professor.

A pioneer West Coast modernist whose work has been exhibited throughout the world, Mullican was a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1959. His work is included in numerous collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, the Phillips Collection and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

In the 1940s, he co-founded with Gordon Onslow Ford and Wolfgang Paalen the Dynaton movement with its roots in Surrealism and automatism. Mullican's fusion of this concern with his interest in Southwest American Indian art forms consistently fueled his art since that time. The Dynaton movement "paralleled in time the abstract expressionism in New York and added a spiritual dimension that Mullican felt was lacking," said Henry Hopkins, director of the UCLA at the Armand Hammer Museum and Cultural Center.

"The marriage of European concepts of surrealism and abstraction to the American landscape...was central to his work, plus Native American art was also an important source," said Elliot Elgart, professor emeritus of art at UCLA. "The marriage of all these elements helped form the basis of Mullican's mature artistic expression and provides him with a special place in the history of American art."

Mullican's range of interests were varied. In 1985-'86, he made three trips to India to investigate past art and discover contemporary art based on past traditions. In addition to his paintings, his ceramic pieces were exhibited in Los Angeles and he also explored working with computer-generated art.

Mullican also organized numerous exhibitions. He was sole curator for "Los Angeles Painting" for the Lancaster, Ohio Art Festival, and he served as co-curator for two exhibitions of contemporary Indian art in 1985-'86 and 1986-'87 at UCLA's Wight Art Gallery as part of the Festival of India. In conjunction with the festival, he was a member of the U.S. –Indo Sub-Committee on Education and Culture.

Mullican is survived by his wife, Luchita, sons Matt and John, stepson Daniel Del Solar and two grandchildren. The family said no funeral services would take place, but that a celebration of his life will be scheduled this fall.


Contact: Carolyn Campbell
Phone: (310) 825-6540
Email: ccampbel@arts.ucla.edu