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Exhibits, Lectures, & Consultant

Harold Lehman's artwork has been included in prestigious  galleries and museums throughout his lifetime.  In Los Angeles during the early 1930's, Lehman exhibited alongside Lorser Feitelson, Helen Lundenberg, Fletcher Martin, Reuben Kadish, Phil Guston, (then Phillip Goldstein), and many other distinguished artists. (See related images.)

In the 1940's posters in addition to winning the National War Poster Competition and having them exhibited at the  of Modern Art, a 3-D box illustrating Man's Daily Bread Rikers Island mural was exhibited at the , and details from the Rikers Island Mural were included in shows at the Whitney Museum, National Society of Mural Painters exhibit, and details from the Rikers Island Mural were exhibited at the New York State Pavilion at the 1939-40 New York World's Fair.  One of the details, The Driller, now owned by the Smithsonian Museum, was recently included in, Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925–1945, at The Whitney Museum. More recently, his paintings have been included in major retrospectives of Post Surrealism, Post Office Murals, and the influence of Mexican muralists, in particular D.A. Siqueiros to American modern art.    

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Later in life, Lehman was invited to participate in symposiums related to D.A. Siqueiros, WPA art and the role of public art.  He was also a primary consultant to books written about D.A. Siqueiros and Jackson Pollock. ​

Group Shows

Related Images

Harold Lehman: The Nineteen Thirties. The Pollock-Krasner House & Study Center. Curator: Helen Harrison.
Group Shows & Exhibitions

  • 2022. Harold Lehman: The Nineteen Thirties. Pollock-Krasner House & Study Center, East Hampton, NY. Solo show of paintings, drawings, and documentation of Lehman’s 1930s work, focusing on detail studies for the Rikers Island Mural, Man’s Daily Bread, on loan from The Wolfsonian-Florida International University's Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection.

Harold Lehman: The Nineteen Thirties. The Pollock-Krasner House & Study Center. Curator: Helen Harrison.

Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925–1945. Whitney Museum of American Art. Curator: Barbara Haskell.

Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925–1945. Whitney Museum of American Art. Curator: Barbara Haskell.

  • 2009, Nexus New York: Latin/American Artists in the Modern Metropolis. Museo Del Barrio, New York, NY. Curator: Deborah Cullen. The influence Harold Lehman had on introducing D.A. Siqueiros to the New York art scene and the role he played as his assistant in the New Experimental Workshop was explored in the opening exhibit of the newly restored museum.

  • 2009. A Common Canvas: Pennsylvania's New Deal Post Office Murals. Curators: David Lembeck and Dr. Curtis Miner. Featuring a life-sized photograph and archival material related to the Renovo Post Office Mural created by Harold Lehman. 

  • 2005, Surrealism USA. National Academy of Design, New York, NY. Curators: Michael Duncan and Isabelle Dervaux.  Major retrospective on surrealism in the United States. Portrait of a Dancer Plus a Sculptor. Harold Lehman. 

    • National Academy of Design. New York. Feb-March. 2005

    • Phoenix Art Museum from June to September 2005

  • 2005, War and Culture. Janet Turner Print Museum, California State University, Chico, California. Curator: Catherine Sullivan. The Paratrooper and other WW II Posters. Harold Lehman. March 21-April 18, 2005.

  • 2002-2003. Post Surrealism: Genesis and Equilibrium/Pictures From the Cerebral World. Pasadena Museum of California Art, Pasadena, CA. Mr. Art Critic and curator, Michael Duncan, invited Harold Lehman to exhibit several of his Post Surrealist paintings. The exhibit also toured to the Nora Eccles Museum of Art, Utah State University in Logan, Utah.

  • 1999. The WPA: The Great American Art Renaissance 1935-43.  the Art Students League, New York. Self Portrait. 1932. Harold Lehman.

Nexus New York: Latin/American Artists in the Modern Metropolis. Museo Del Barrio, New York, NY. Curator: Deborah Cullen.

Nexus New York: Latin/American Artists in the Modern Metropolis. Museo Del Barrio, New York, NY. Curator: Deborah Cullen

  • 1995. Pacific Dreams: Currents of Surrealism and Fantasy in California Art, 1934-1957. UCLA/Armand Hammer Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA. Curator: Susan Ehrlich.  Three of Harold Lehman's Post-Surrealist paintings were included in this retrospective exhibit which went on tour to the following museums:

    • Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA

    • Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Logan, UT

  • 1987. Woodstock: Fifty Years of Printmaking. Associated American Artists. This retrospective of printmaking that occurred in Woodstock, NY in the first 50 years of the 20th century.  The Isolationists. Lithograph. Harold Lehman.

  • 1985. Self Portraits: Six Artists from the WPA Years.  Miami-Dade Community College. Curator Ellen Sragow.  Self-Portrait. 1932. Harold Lehman.

  • 1966. Art '66. Sisterhood Fort Lee Jewish Center. Fort Lee, NJ. 

  • 1945. 1st Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Drawings. National Academy. Traction Case. Harold Lehman. Dec 13 to Jan 10, 1945.

  • 1937. Temporary Galleries of the Municipal Art Committee of New York. Self Portrait and Landlady. Harold Lehman won Popular Award. February 3-21, 1937

Los Angeles Group Shows
Panel Discussion: Six Artists From the WPA Years. Mitchel Wolfson Jr. Collection of Decorative and Propaganda Arts. Miami-Dade Community College. March 30, 1985.

Panel Discussion: Six Artists From the WPA Years. Mitchel Wolfson Jr. Collection of Decorative and Propaganda Arts. Miami-Dade Community College. March 30, 1985

Surrealism USA. National Academy of Design, New York, NY. Curators: Michael Duncan and Isabelle Dervaux.

Surrealism USA. National Academy of Design, New York, NY. Curators: Michael Duncan and Isabelle Dervaux. 

Pacific Dreams: Currents of Surrealism and Fantasy in California Art, 1934-1957. UCLA/Armand Hammer Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA. Curator: Susan Ehrlich.

Pacific Dreams: Currents of Surrealism and Fantasy in California Art, 1934-1957. UCLA/Armand Hammer Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA. Curator: Susan Ehrlich.

Los Angeles Group Shows

  • 1935. Jake Zeitlin Gallery. One-man show of Harold Lehman including Adolescent. Reviewed by Arthur Millier, Los Angeles Times. May 26, 1935. 

  • 1935. The Sixteenth Annual Exhibition of Painters and Sculptors. Los Angeles Museum Exposition Park, Los Angeles, CA. Landlady. Harold Lehman. April 25 to June 6, 1935

  • 1935. Second Annual Exhibition California Figure Painters. Foundation of Western Art, Los Angeles, CA.  American Scene No. 2. Harold Lehman. April 1 to May 31, 1935. 

  • 1934. Second Annual Exhibition Paintings by California Modernists. Foundation of Western Art, Los Angeles. CA. Portrait of a Dancer Plus a Sculptor. Harold Lehman. Nov 5 to Dec 22, 1934. 

  • 1934. The Eight Annual Exhibition of Southern California Art. Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego, Balboa Park, Sand Diego, CA. Landlady and Portrait of a Dancer Plus a Sculptor. Harold Lehman. June 29 to Sept. 16, 1934.

  • 1933. The Fourteenth Annual Exhibition of Painters and Sculptors. Los Angeles Museum Exposition Park. Landlady. Harold Lehman. April 7 to June 12, 1933. 

  • 1933. Stanley Rose Book Shop Gallery. 2-man show of Lehman and Phil Goldstein (aka Phil Guston.) Landlady, drawings, and sculpture. 

  • 1933. Progressive Painters of Southern California. Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego, CA. Self Portrait. Harold Lehman. Dec 1 to 31, 1933. 

Symposiums

  • 1999. The WPA: The Great American Art Renaissance 1935-43. Art Student's League, New York. A symposium on art of the WPA where Harold Lehman was a guest speaker. March 25, 1999.

  • 1985. A symposium on Art of the WPA. Miami-Dade Museum's Mitchel Wolfson Collection Exhibit, March 30, 1985.

  • 1985. The Tilted Arc controversy in New York where he was one of the speakers who addressed the topic What Is Appropriate and What Isn't in Public Art.

  • 1978-79. The Mexico Today Symposium. A symposium on Mexican and American art. Guest speaker at the Detroit Institute of Art, with Francis O'Connor and Lawrence Hurlburt. Nov. 4, 1978.

Symposiums
Harold Lehman presenting at The WPA: The Great American Art Renaissance: 1935-43. Art Student's League. March 25, 1999.
Consultant

  • The Mexican Muralists in the United States. (c) 1989. Hurlburt, Laurance, P.  In-depth history of the Mexican muralists who came to the US in the 1930s and their influence on American Art.   Lehman was a primary consultant to Mr. Hurlburt specifically related to D.A. Siqueiros. 

  • Jackson Pollock, An American Saga (c) 1989, Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith. Stephen Naifeh conducted extensive interviews with Lehman to gain a better understanding of their formative years in Los Angeles at Manual Arts and later in New York when Lehman brought Pollock in to participate in the Siqueiros Experimental Workshop.

  • Consultant to Frances O'Connor, scholar and author of Jackson Pollock's catalogue raisonné on authenticating paintings claimed to be done by Jackson Pollock.   

Consultant

Harold Lehman presenting at The WPA: The Great American Art Renaissance: 1935-43. Art Student's League. March 25, 1999.

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