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Oil on Canvas
17 7/8 x 7 1/4 inches
22 7/8 x 12 1/4 inches framed
Signed C. Lee lower right
Fine condition
Chicagoland origin
Clifford Lee (1926 – 1985) was a Chicago artist and commercial illustrator who specialized in use of the palette to create his paintings. He is included in Theresa Dickson Cederholm’s and Lynn Moody Igoe’s listing of African American artists, the 1974 Ebony Handbook and Falk’s Who’s Who in American Art.
CHICAGO TRIBUNE, October 9, 1985
Services for Clifford Valentino Lee, an artist who exhibited widely in the Chicago area, will be at 8 p.m. Wednesday in the chapel at 2100 E. 75th St. Mr. Lee, 59, died Sunday in his home. Mr. Lee applied his art commercially, designing plastic shower curtains, glass bottles and chinaware, before his paintings received acclaim. He sold more than 9,000 paintings done in his impressionistic ”palette-knife” technique, which he acquired during study at Kendall Academy, the Grand Rapids Art Gallery and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He also was an illustrator for Ebony magazine. Mr. Lee is survived by a son, Tony; three daughters, Ingrid, Kindra and Ericka; two brothers; and two sisters.