Lewis Teague (painter)

R. (Rudolph) Lewis Teague (November 30, 1917 in Jamaica, New York – April 14, 1978 Fayston, Vermont) was a renowned American painter. The youngest son of Industrial Designer Walter Dorwin Teague, he initially studied architecture at the Pratt Institute. Two years into his studies, he was encouraged to consider pursuing painting by Tom Benrimo, his instructor, and he began studying at the Art Students League of New York, finding Morris Kantor a sympathetic mentor and teacher.

Born to Cecilia Fehon Teague and Walter Dorwin Teague, Teague attended PS1, then Gow School for Dyslexia and Learning Disabilities. Teague was left-handed, and letters from his father indicate he was there, at least partially, to learn to write with his right hand. While there, he learned to ski, inspiring his older brother, Dorwin, to also take up the sport, thus inspiring three generations of Teague skiers. Lewis was a member of the lacrosse and rugby teams.

Teague married Mary Lee Abbott on March 2, 1943. Teague left the Army in 1945 at the end of the war, and he and Abbott separated in 1946. Teague returned to the Art Students League where he met Virginia Vanderbilt. In 1948 and 1949, Teague contracted polio affecting his thigh and stomach muscles, as well as losing the use of his left arm. Following a long recovery from which he was not expected to survive let alone learn to walk again, he divorced Abbott in 1950, and he and Virginia were married.

Learning to walk following the serious bout with polio, Teague and his second wife (1950), Virginia Vanderbilt, moved to Norwich, Vermont from New York in 1954, where they raised four children, Allison, Cecelia, John and Joshua.

Teague learned to paint and draw again with his right hand, delivering a body of work that was shown at the New York World's Fair in the Gas Pavilion restaurant in 1960, at the Port Authority in 1964, and through the Bermuda Society of Arts in Bermuda, with Henry Moore in 1965. Numerous shows in Vermont and New York punctuated his career until his death in 1978.

A show was held posthumously in 1983 at the Unicorn Gallery in Aspen, which was purchased in its entirety by Texas collector, Gayle David Fogelson. It is unknown what happened to these, some 22, paintings which include some of Teague's most definitive pieces of abstract expressionist and color field paintings.

Teague leaves a remaining legacy of paintings and drawings that have essentially not seen the light of day since his death.

References

Allison Teague, daughter