Doris Lee

Born: 1905

Died: 1983

Doris Elizabeth Emrik was born in Aledo, Illinois. She graduated from Rockford College in 1927 with a degree in art and philosophy. After graduation, she married Russell Werner Lee. Doris Lee studied painting in Italy and France before returning to the United States where she continued her studies in San Francisco. She established a studio in New York and eventually settled in Woodstock, NY. In 1932, she was included in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Biennial. Her painting, Thanksgiving, won the Logan Prize at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1935. The same year Lee was commissioned to complete two murals for the General Post Office in Washington, DC. After WWII, Lee traveled extensively, writing and illustrating articles for Life magazine. She created work that was used to advertise products for a wide variety of companies, including General Mills and the United States Brewers Association. Her work became increasingly abstract in the 1950s and she worked in a wide array of media.