Lee Jaffe grew up in The Bronx in the 1950’s. He completed high school requirements by age sixteen before attending Penn State University, where he studied literature, art history, and philosophy.
At nineteen, Jaffe left Penn State, briefly played harmonica and guitar in New York bands, then relocated to Brazil. He directed experimental 16mm films including Nine Ways of Dying in Brazil’s remote sertão, a documentary with Luis Gonzaga and collaborated with Brazilian filmmaker/artists Neville d’Almeida, Miguel Rio Branco, Rogério Sganzerla and Helena Ignes and with Hélio Oiticica on the 1970 exhibition “From Body to Earth” in Belo Horizonte.
Returning to New York in 1971, Jaffe continued filmmaking with conceptual artists Vito Acconci, Dennis Oppenheim and Gordon Matta-Clark, and participated in the seminal 1971 “Projects: Pier 18” exhibition at MoMA, curated by Avalanche Magazine co-founders Willoughby Sharp and Lisa Baer.
“Highly cerebral and abstract, Jaffe has the memory of a computer and the disposition of a philosopher.”
In 1972, a chance meeting in New York with a then unknown Bob Marley led him to Jamaica where he lived for three years with Marley organizing and managing the Wailers first two North American tours and joining the band playing harmonica on the Natty Dread, album and on the Bob Marley and the Wailers North American tour. Subsequently he produced the first solo album of original Wailer, Peter Tosh, the breakthrough 1976, Legalize It and shooting its iconic cover.
Returning to New York in the late 70’s, Jaffe turned to creating large-scale, multi-media assemblage exploring themes of marginalization, de-colonization and deconstructing race theory with a focus on American history. He has had solo exhibitions at major institutions including Moderna Museet (Stockholm), the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Dublin), and Ikon Gallery (Birmingham).
He has often collaborated with artist friends including Nancy Spero, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Nari Ward.
“… the extraordinary cross-disciplinary visual artist, musician and poet whose work over the past five decades led to artistic collaborations with the likes of Bob Marley, Jean-Michel Basquiat …”
During the past decade he has had large scale installations of photographs he made with Jean-Michel Basquiat during their travels around the world. These have been at major museums alongside Basquiat painting retrospectives at The Brooklyn Museum, The Perez Art Museum Miami, The High Museum, Atlanta, The Guggenheim Bilbao, Foundation Louis Vuitton, Paris and The King Pleasure exhibition in New York and Los Angeles.
His books, Crossroads: Jean-Michel Basquiat/Lee Jaffe (2022) and Hit Me With Music: Roots Rock Reggae (2024) are co-published by Mandela Media and Rizzoli New York and Bob Marley and the Wailers: 1973–1976, co-authored with French scholar Jérémie Kroubo Dagnini (2013, Camion Blanc).
“Basquiat’s youth, intelligence, humor, ambition, energy, and complexity radiate from each print.”
Jaffe has produced records with reggae pioneer Joe Higgs, the Grammy-nominated Wailing Souls, Morgan Heritage and dancehall originator Barrington Levy.
His work is in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Tate Gallery and many others.
“The photographs captured by Jaffe on this journey are brimming with humour and energy … an intimate portrait of the artist as a friend and collaborator.”