Besieged by women’s requests for works by painter Annie Lee in the late 1990s, Hammond, Ind.-based art seller Yusuf Ali El traveled to the Annie Lee & Friends Gallery in south suburban Glenwood and was surprised to find the artist herself staffing the place.
“I was starstruck that this lady that everyone was asking about and talking about, she was right here looking like someone’s grandmother and being as nice as can be,” El said Tuesday.
Famous particularly in the African-American community for her highly expressive paintings of faceless figures whose emotion, motion and humor were conveyed through the artist’s keen eye for body language, Lee died Monday in the Las Vegas area at age 79, as first reported by radio personality Tom Joyner’s BlackAmericaWeb.com site.
Lee was a regular on Joyner’s radio show and a supporter of his foundation backing students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and her work decorates his Dallas radio studio, said Marty Raab, senior vice president of marketing, digital events and communications for Joyner’s Reach Media Inc. Her paintings and figurines also have appeared on such television shows as “227,” “A Different World,” “Amen” and “Thea” and dwell in many more homes.
“She saw African-American life, and she saw the poetry there,” El said. “She saw the art.”
Lee was a late bloomer in the art world, not pursuing painting seriously until she was in her 40s. A 1997 Tribune profile details how this Chicago-raised artist was offered a full scholarship to Northwestern University in her early 20s but turned it down to raise a family. She also worked for the Chicago & North Western Railroad for 10 years.
Her life took tragic turns: She was twice widowed, and her 28-year-old son, Howard, was killed in a car accident in 1986. She immersed herself in her painting, and as she gained attention for her works she began shipping them from her Glenwood home. She opened her first gallery in a Glenwood strip mall when she was in her mid-50s. Lee eventually moved to the Las Vegas area, to Dallas and back to Vegas.
Her subjects had no faces, but their posture told the whole story, such as the stoop-shouldered woman sitting at the edge of her bed in Lee’s most famous painting, “Blue Monday.” Lee painted figures from the Civil War through the Roaring ’20s and up to the Obama family lounging in the setting of “Oval Office.” Men would appear, but women tended to be the focus.
“I think my paintings connect me to women,” Lee said in that 1997 Tribune story. “I know that how I feel is the way a lot of women feel.”
“What she painted was what we all knew,” El said, “but it was not art until she pointed it out.”
Tom Joyner was unavailable to comment while traveling overseas, but his son, Thomas Joyner, president and CEO of the Tom Joyner Foundation, recalled his father’s home being filled with her artwork that he collected. The younger Joyner got to know Lee as she did work for the foundation, including appearing as a featured artist on annual cruises between 2000 and 2010 and visiting with and selling artwork to passengers.
“She has donated more than $100,000 to the Tom Joyner Foundation,” Thomas Joyner said, noting that one of her images also adorned his and his wife’s wedding cake. “She was a lady with a big heart and a lot of love. It was a blessing to have her generosity and giving spirit.”
Raab said Lee also provided the art for Tom Joyner’s get-out-the-vote drives as well as his annual Christmas cards sent to more than 20,000 people.
“Annie just completed the card for Tom this year,” Raab said. “There will be a Christmas card that will be arriving to people that will have Annie’s thought and creativity behind it.”
Those who knew her recalled her warmth and down-to-earth manner.
“She just had this incredible laugh, and if she called you, it made your day,” Raab said.
“She was just anybody’s mother, anyone’s grandmother, and it does appear that talent never went to her head,” said El, who was planning to sell some of Lee’s figurines Friday at River Oaks Center in Calumet City.
But that talent was there nonetheless. “She was our Picasso, our Salvador Dali,” El said. “She was that.”
“I sometimes ask why I’m doing this,” Lee told the Tribune in 1997. “Painting has been here forever. And art and music are things you have to have. It’s as simple as that.”
Family members were unavailable for this story. BlackAmericaWeb.com reported that Lee is survived by a daughter, Davina Joy Smith, a son, Charles, and grandchildren and great grandchildren.
mcaro@tribpub.com Twitter @MarkCaro
