Janie Curry Lee

Janie Curry Lee, noted gallery owner, curator, and art patron, died on April 11, 2024.

While primarily known for her work in the art world, following her 1959 graduation from Sarah Lawrence College, Lee began her professional career in the New York theater, first in lighting design and later as a producer. Among her plays was "The Caretaker" by Harold Pinter.

In 1967, Lee moved to Dallas where she opened her first gallery, showing works by New York painters such as Jasper Johns and Helen Frankenthaler, and sculptors Carl Andre and, Claes Oldenburg, In 1974, recognizing the vibrant collecting climate in Houston, Lee opened her second gallery there.  In 1976 she closed her Dallas location and moved to Houston. She became increasingly drawn to unique works on paper, and in 1979 she mounted the first ever retrospective of Robert Motherwell's drawings.  Three years later she opened a pioneering exhibition of cubist drawings, including works by Paris School artists, Picasso and Braque and Russian cubists Ivan Kluin and Liubov Popova.

In 1984, Lee opened Janie C. Lee Master Drawing in New York City At the time, a gallery devoted solely to twentieth century drawings was unique.  It was at this time that she began to increase her own personal drawing collection

In the mid 1980s, Lee was invited to become a member of the Art Dealers Association, later serving as Vice President. Concurrently she served for eight years on the Art Advisory Committee for the Internal Revenue Service.

In the mid 1990s Lee decided to close both her Houston and New York galleries, and to work as an independent curator of drawings. Announcement of this move led officials of the Whitney Museum of American Art to hire Lee as Curator of Drawings. During her tenure there she mounted two exhibitions each of which led to in depth acquisition of works by the artists, Claes Oldenburg and Brice Marden. Lee also curated a major retrospective of Arshile Gorky's drawings, which travelled to the Menil Collection in Houston, following its 2003 New York venue.

Lee was elected a trustee of the Menil Foundation in 2000. After she retired from the Whitney position, Lee began to devote her time to the realization of a long held dream, a stand alone institution and building within a museum, devoted solely to drawings.  In 2008 the Menil Foundation announced what became the Menil Drawing Institute.. An initial project of the Drawing Institute was a catalogue raisonne of Jasper Johns' drawings. In 2015 ground was broken for the building, designed by Los Angeles architectural firm Johnson Mark Lee  In June of 2016 the Menil Collection announced Lee's gift of 56 drawings to the Drawing Institute .which ranged from an 1859 Degas to a 2013 drawing by Johns, one of five Johns drawings in the  gift.. Together with gifts from Houston collector, Louisa Stude Sarofim, and the late David Whitney, these drawings were exhibited at the Menil in early 2017 in the exhibition, " The Beginning of Everything", which was accompanied by a catalogue of the same name.

Janie Curry Lee, born in 1937 in Shreveport Louisiana, was the daughter of Joanna Glassell and Birch Lee. She graduated from Washington's National Cathedral School in 1955 and Sarah Lawrence College in 1959.

In 1980 she married David B. Warren, Curator of the Bayou Bend Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

She is survived by her husband, her son Wilson F. Warren and wife Maren, her grandchildren, Declan and Madelaine Warren, and her cousins Alfred Glassell, III, Kate Gubelmann, William Comegys, and other Comegys and Crichton cousins

A memorial service will be held at the Menil Drawing Institute at a future date

In lieu of flowers, it is suggested contributions be directed to the Menil Drawing Institute.