Wesley Duke Lee

Who was Wesley Duke Lee?

Wesley Duke Lee was a Brazilian painter.

Lee was a grandson of Americans and Portuguese and started his learning of art in the drawing course of São Paulo Museum of Art, in 1951. In the following year, he moved to the United States to study in the Parsons and in the AIGA, in New York, until 1955. Then, he knew the works of Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Cy Twombly and the Pop art in general. Back to Brazil, Lee quit the advertising career and studied painting with Karl Plattner, joining Plattner in a trip to Italy and Austria until 1960. Lee also travels to Paris, where he attends classes in the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and in the atelier of Johnny Friedlaender.

After returning to Brazil, in 1963, Lee begins to work with young artists and performed the happening O Grande Espetáculo das Artes at the João Sebastião Bar, in São Paulo. That was considered one of the most pioneer happenings in Brazil.

With Maria Cecília, Bernardo Cid, Otto Stupakoff and Pedro Manuel Gismondi, among others, he tried to establish a group dedicated to magic realism. In 1966, he joined a group named "Grupo Rex" but it lasted only until 1967.