Westmoreland Art Museum makes New York Times 2021 list of best art books | Visual arts | Pittsburgh

An art museum in Greensburg in Westmoreland County has just received recognition from the New York Times for a book on the museum’s latest exhibition.

The Westmoreland Museum of American Art has announced that NYT critics selected the catalog for Simple pleasures: the art of Doris Lee as one of the best art books of 2021. The 240-page book features illustrations, essays and more covering Simple pleasures, a current exhibit featuring 70 works of art spanning the 40-year career of Lee, considered a leading figure in the Woodstock Artist Colony.

Roberta Smith, Co-Chief Art Critic for NYT, chose the Simple pleasures catalog as one of her favorites, writing that the book “should begin to end” Lee’s obscurity.

“Our mission is to deliver compelling and meaningful cultural experiences that open the door to new perspectives, and I think that really shines through in the catalog,” said Westmoreland Chief Curator Barbara L. Jones, who has organized Simple pleasures with Melissa Wolfe, Curator of American Art at the Saint Louis Art Museum. “We have four different aspects of Doris’ career represented in the catalog offering different ways to look at her work, so you have these different perspectives. But we also offer our audience the opportunity to discover an artist who was pretty much unknown in the country. She was known during her lifetime, but then her fame faded. ”

Born in 1905, Lee worked both as a fine artist and as a commercial artist. A press release explains that in the decades following World War II, Lee “responded to the rise of Abstract Expressionism with skill and agility and his own sense of grace, developing his own visual style.” He adds that Lee’s body of work, which includes paintings, drawings, prints and commissioned creations in fabric and pottery, often depicts “domestic subjects and everyday life in a folk art style. “.

Jones explains that Westmoreland worked on the catalog with London publisher D Giles. Pittsburgh artist Brett Yasko worked on the design of the book.

In addition to his beautiful works of art, Simple pleasures – currently on view until January 9, 2022 – also features a selection of product ads Lee created for the American Tobacco Company and General Foods.

“Reconsidering Doris Lee’s art allows us to realize the often overlooked complexities of the American art world at the height of Abstract Expressionism,” Wolfe said in a press release. “Lee is one example of the number of prominent female and figurative artists who have found outlets to produce extraordinary works of art that challenge the marginalization of artists both in their time and often still today. Lee’s mastery in the commercial and fine art worlds reflects the remarkable breadth of his abilities.

the Simple pleasures: the art of Doris Lee The catalog is now available for purchase on the Westmoreland website and in the museum gift shop.

The exhibit, which opened on September 26, is currently on view for those who wish to see it in person.

“I am proud of everyone who worked on the catalog: all of the authors, all of the production managers, the publisher, the designer and all of the staff,” says Jones. “I mean, it’s just a really exciting honor for us at the Museum, but also for Doris Lee. She’s getting the recognition that I think she deserves with this exhibit, so I feel really good about it. “