Cj Cook

Leeteg Cj Cook

Throughout his life, shrewd promoter and creative genius Edgar Leeteg possessed many titles, astounding fans and antagonizing critics. Considered the "American Gauguin," he originated the modern technique of oil painting on black velvet. Once memorialized by James Michener as an original rascal in paradise. This is a biography of the artist Leeteg, who left California in 1933 bound for the South Pacific. His home in Tahiti allowed him to paint nudes, drink, and party with sensual vahines from the beaches to the bars of Tahiti. Leeteg described himself as a "fornicating, gin-soaked, dope head" and all the artists and writers of the South Pacific knew of him. He took on the elite of the art establishment of Honolulu Academy of Arts in 1938 and shamed them in the press. He was a wealthy artist and legend in his lifetime, a goal few can achieve. Tourists visiting Tahiti would seek him out for his generosity of wine, women, and song on his Shangri-la-like estate called Villa Velour on his quiet isle. He was the father of black velvet art and the genesis of a genre continuing today with the tiki and Polynesian pop art movement, nearly 70 years later.