Lee Atkyns
Also known as Willie Lee Atkyns Jr. (America, 1913 to 1987), Atkyns influenced many aspiring painters in central Pennsylvania and the Washington, D.C. area and studied under the muralist Auriel Bessemer. After his early artistic success with a 1941 show at New York’s #10 Gallery, Atkyns worked for the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing. He left that position in 1945 to devote his time to teaching art in schools he established in Johnstown, Altoona, Indiana and Puzzletown, Pennsylvania, as well as in the District of Columbia. He closed his D.C. school in 1968.
Atkyns’s work is part of the prestigious Phillips collection in Washington, D.C.