10 Questions with Lee Musgrave

Originally from Perth, Australia, artist Lee Musgrave studied in Los Angeles with Hans Burkhardt (Swiss) and Fritz Faiss (German). Hans was the studio partner of Arshile Gorky. Fritz studied at the Bauhaus with Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky. Musgrave holds a Master of Art degree from California State University, Los Angeles. His artwork has been exhibited in over 20 solo and 100 group exhibitions. He is the recipient of an American National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. He specializes in abstract photography, for which he has received several awards and which were most recently exhibited in the Techspressionism 2021 Online Invitational; 2018 Barcelona Foto Biennale; at L.A. Artcore Gallery, Los Angeles; Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, OR; Galerie Sehnsucht, Rotterdam, NL and in the 2016 Berlin Foto Biennale. Media articles about Musgrave’s photography are in F-Stop Magazine Issue 97 Abstraction, Art Ascent Magazine Abstract 2019, DoHo Magazine, November 2017 online article; in 2017 LandEscape Contemporary Art Review, Anniversary Edition; in the inaugural edition of Create Magazine; and in L’Oeil de la Photographie e-zine, 27 February 2016. 

www.leemusgrave.com

ARTIST STATEMENT

When one thinks about 'still-life' inspired art, traditional tableware images, flowers, fruit, and vegetables come to mind, usually shown as 3D objects with volume and cast shadows. But Lee Musgrave's work does not embrace those institutionalized customs. He favors a visual language that explores the shallow picture plane and is abstract as well as representational. Musgrave is intrigued by images that blur the border between the virtual and the real. To him, the physicality of this new breed of contemporary ephemeral still life objects in conjunction with the abstract dynamism of radiant, reflected, and/or absorbed light allows the viewer to explore a hybrid reality through a staged setting - a very different definition of 'still-life' art, one that ignites the viewer's imagination. One where domestic and industrial items are removed from their utilitarian functions and transformed into engaging non-figurative abstract shapes and gestures.

All the objects in his images were collected internationally then staged, lighted, and photographed on Musgrave's studio work table. However, his Techspressionism images also include many alterations in color, shape, and texture created with his computer.

INTERVIEW

First of all, why are you an artist, and how did you become one?

Ever since I could walk and talk, I started drawing with pencils and crayons. Then while studying South America, in the 3rd grade, the teacher drew an outline of the continent of South America on a very large piece of paper and asked for a volunteer to paint in the Andes Mountains … I was happily selected and creating art quickly became imbedded in every sinew of my being. 

What is your personal aim as an artist?

To share my artistic self-expression with others.

And how would you define yourself as an artist?

Self-motivated and passionate.

Where do you get inspiration for your works? What sources and mediums do you use?

My drawing, painting, photography, and creative writing are primarily inspired by my life experiences enter-acting with other people and nature.

What is your creative process like? And how did you evolve this way of working?

When studying something I’ve found or when creatively visualizing, I search for the grace within the chaos, which is a process of taking advantage of chance and acknowledging the happy accident. That said, experience has taught me many ways to ensure such occasions will happen no matter which medium I’m working in.

What aspect of your work do you pay particular attention to?

What matters most to me is whether the work has integrity; does it suggest a realm beyond itself; does it move me emotionally or intellectually?

Is there a piece you consider a “breakthrough” in your career?

The first painting I ever won an award for, a large semi-abstract self-portrait. In 1968, while visiting Munich, I took a photograph of my own shadow silhouetted on an old weathered wall, and when I returned to Los Angeles, I made a life-size painting inspired by that photo. I entered the painting into the annual “all city art competition” and won an award. That experience gave me the confidence to believe in my intuitive drive to share my artwork. I still have that painting.

What do you think about the art community and market? And how did your perception change over the last year due to the pandemic?

Art is a primal need, and it will survive for as long as humanity does, for it is adaptable to all conditions, including a pandemic. Personally, I’ve had a stronger reaction to emerging right-wing political radicalism than to the pandemic.

What are you working on now, and what are your plans for the future? Anything exciting you can tell us about?

I’m currently creating images using the international Techspressionism approach where-in I stage bits and pieces of found ephemera on my studio work table, photograph it and load it into my computer, then alter the image using a variety of computer programs to make an engaging abstraction which I print on paper, canvas or aluminum. Opening on 26 October, Techspressionism 2021, a curated online exhibition featuring 100 artists from over 30 countries, will be formatted on a 3D Kuntsmatrix platform and will include one of my works. Free access to the exhibit can be found on Techspressionism.com.

And lastly, what is one piece of advice you would give to an emerging artist?

Be true to yourself (otherwise you will make yourself sick).