Mary Ann Lehman: Etcher of Western Scenes

 

Mary Ann Lehman
Quiet Crow Camp
Etching
n.d.
2x10 inches

Mary Ann Lehman was an American Western artist born near Spokane, Washington in 1920. She was best known for her etchings of horses and Western scenes enhanced with watercolor and oil. Lehman's creative work was predominantly influenced by modernism of the 1950s. Lehman was a member of the Los Angeles Art Association, the Palos Verdes Art Association, the Laguna Beach Art Association, and the Laguna Beach Festival of Art. She painted in oil in a heavy impasto style that has depth and texture. 

Mary Ann Lehman
Native American on Horse
Oil
n.d.

Lehman was raised in the San Fernando Valley from the age of six. In 1938, she studied at The Otis Art Institute in downtown Los Angeles. During World War II, Lehman served as a sergeant in the Women's Army Corps located in Los Alamos, New Mexico. After the war, she married Joseph Lehman in 1946 and the couple settled in Lawndale, in the South Bay region of Los Angeles.

Mary Ann Lehman
California Oil Man on Horseback
Oil
Mid 20th century
18 x 24 inches

Resuming her art training, Lehman studied at UCLA (1946), Chouinard School of Art, LA (1946-1951), and El Camino College, Torrance, CA (1956-1958). In the Post-War period the lens of modern art both nationally and internationally was connected with developments in New York City. The Second World War brought many leading artists in exile from Europe to New York, leading to a rich pool of talent and ideas. Notable European artists such as Piet Mondrian, Josef Albers and Hans Hoffmann provided inspiration for eager American artists and set the bar of much of the United States’ significant cultural growth in the subsequent decades. 

Mary Ann Lehman
The Wild Ones
Etching
n.d.
2x14 inches

The 1950s can be said to have been dominated by Abstract Expressionism, a form of painting that prioritized expressive brushstrokes and explored ideas about organic nature, spirituality and the sublime. Much of the focus was on the formal properties of painting, and ideas of action painting were conflated with the political freedom of the United States society as opposed to the strictures of the Soviet bloc. Key artists of the Abstract Expressionist Generation included Jackson Pollock (who innovated his famed drip, splatter and pour painting techniques), Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Frank Kline, Barnett Newman, Clyfford Still and Adolph Gottlieb. It was a male-dominated environment, though necessary revisionism of this period has emphasized the contributions of female artists such as Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, and Louise Bourgeois.

Mary Ann Lehman
Big Daddy ca 1977, Bingo, Don Quixote ca 1982
Color etchings
3 3/4 x 5 3/4 inches

Lehman also did freelance work including scratchboard illustrations for "Blood Horse Magazine".

In 1968, Lehman took up etching at the urginging of her instructor, Joe Mugniani. For the next fifteen years, she produced numerous etchings, often colored with oil or watercolor. Her lifetime interest in horses and the West is reflected in the works seen here. Mary Ann Lehman received first-place awards for both etchings and watercolors, and exhibition venues included Salt Lake City; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Memphis, Tennessee; and Albany, New York.

Her work has been exhibited at the annuls of the Death Valley Forty-niners, the Saddleback Inn, Santa Ana, CA, Fort Robinson, NE and Temecula, CA. 

Sources______________________________________________________________________

An Enclyclopedia of Women Artists of the American West, Phil Kovinick and Marian Yoshiki-Kovinick, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1998, p. 188-89.

AskArt, Mary Anna Lehman, https://www.askart.com/artist/Mary_Anna_Lehman/126986/Mary_Anna_Lehman.aspx, retrieved December 18, 2020.

MutualArt, Mary Anna Lehman, https://www.mutualart.com/Artist/Mary-Anna-Lehman/3F19F603DBE3E6B9, retrieved December 18, 2020.