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Roger Lee Steele
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Known for
Printmaker
Name
Roger Steele
Full Name
Roger Lee Steele
Born
12 June 1945
Fort Smith, Arkansas
Died
4 August 2012
Beaufort, South Carolina
Notable work
Moronbu II, Kaminari Hue in Rain
Roger Lee Steele (12 June 1945 – 4 August 2012) Reared in Wichita Falls, Texas was an American-born graphic artist/printmaker living in South Carolina best known for his evocative and colorful lithography, an artistic process also known as relief printing. He was a printmaker specializing in the color-blend or split fountain technique often incorporating traditional chine-collé gold leaf techniques in his work. His abstract color graphics are frequently suggestive of an artistic link between mid-late Japanese motifs and the modern world.
As an exchange student at Tokyo’s Sophia University, Steele studied graphic art and painting and was strongly attracted to the culture and artistic aesthetic of late Edo period and early Meiji period. His studies at Sophia were to make a lasting impression, which continued to inform his work throughout his life. He completed his studies at Texas Christian University, graduating in 1974 with a Masters Degree in Fine Arts.
Eventually, his style came to strongly feature late period Japanese elements and techniques, evoking the “floating world” of the 18th and 19th centuries. His highly recognizable, occasionally “militaristic” approach was developed over decades to its current status as a point of reference for the genre. He was considered a master of abstract color relief lithography with a considerable following among those knowledgeable in this field. His earliest works featured landscape vistas fused with broadly martial representations, alternatively peaceful, then vaguely soldierly and even bellicose in composition.
Throughout his career, Steele played an active role in art education both as an educator and as a lecturer and curator, maintaining affiliations with the University of South Carolina, the Southern Graphics Council, American Print Alliance, and the World Print Council. He was a significant contributor to the Southern Graphics Council International, with service to that organization spanning nearly forty years. He held nearly every position on the board and continued to be artistically active up to his death in 2012. His works are to be found in a number of permanent museum and corporate collections as well as in private hands. His life and art were celebrated from March–April 2013 in an exhibition of his whimsical Valentine Collection at THE Fine Art Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Steele's contributions to the educational community of his home town of Beaufort, South Carolina were the subject of a posthumous tribute in the Hilton Head Island News, February 2-8, 2017.
Affiliations
Southern Graphics Council: Treasurer (1978-1980), SC Representative at Large (2002-2004), Vice President for Internal Affairs (2004-2006), Curator of the Traveling Exhibition (2006-2009)
American Print Alliance
World Print Council
Southeastern College Art Conference
South Carolina Arts Commission
Exhibitions
Prints by Robert Steele-Special Exhibition, The Fine Art Gallery LLC, Milwaukee, WI, March–April 2013
Southern Graphics Council Traveling Exhibition 2006-2009
Corcoran Museum School of Art, Washington, DC 2005
Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers, New Brunswick, NJ 2004
Expect the Unexpected: Charles Street Gallery, Dec, 2003. Beaufort, SC
Revolutions and Representation, Boston University, Boston, Ma 2003
Steele on Paper: Charles Street Gallery, Dec, 2002, Beaufort, SC
The History and Techniques of Printmaking (Traveling exhibition) McMaster Gallery, USC, Columbia, SC 2002
Fresh Paint: USCB, May, 2002
Print Gumbo, New Orleans, La 2002
Border Crossings, University of Texas, Austin, 2001
Edo Vision: Converse College, Spartanburg, SC, May, 1999
Edo Vision: USCB, Jan, 1999
Southern Graphics Council Traveling Show: 1998-2001
Exchange Portfolio Exhibition, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 1995
Portfolio Exhibition, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, 1994
Emergency Art Call: Beaufort Memorial Hospital, 1992
Piccolo Spoleto: Charleston, SC, 1991
National Works on Paper: University of Mississippi, 1990
Gibbes Art Museum, Charleston, SC, 1989
Columbia College, Columbia, SC, 1988
16 South Carolina Printmakers, Furman University, Greenville, SC, 1988
Invitational: Century Center, Charlotte, NC, 1987
Colorblend USA: Texas Tech, Lubbock, Texas, 1987
Beaufort Art Association Spring show, Beaufort, SC, 1985
