Barbara Ann Lekberg (née Barbara Ann Hult; March 19, 1925 – February 14, 2018) was an American sculptor.

Early life and education

Barbara Lekberg was born as Barbara Ann Hult on March 19, 1925 in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

. Her mother was music teacher Mildred Anderson, and her father was in the family lumber business, Melvin Hult. Lekberg attended

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

, studying sculpture under ,

Philip Guston Philip Guston (born Phillip Goldstein, June 27, 1913 – June 7, 1980), was a Canadian American painter, printmaker, muralist and draftsman. Early in his five decade career, muralist David Siquieros described him as one of "the most promising ...

, and

Mauricio Lasansky Mauricio Leib Lasansky (October 12, 1914 – April 2, 2012) was an Argentine artist and educator known both for his advanced techniques in intaglio printmaking and for a series of 33 pencil drawings from the 1960s titled "The Nazi Drawings." ...

. She graduated in 1946 with a B.A. degree in sculpture, and in 1947 with a M.A. degree in art history. She moved to New York City in the late 1940s. Lekberg studied at The Clay Club (now known as the

SculptureCenter SculptureCenter is a not-for-profit, contemporary art museum located in Long Island City, Queens, New York City. It was founded in 1928 as "The Clay Club" by Dorothea Denslow. In 2013, SculptureCentre attracted around 13,000 visitors. History Fou ...

), under Sahl Swarz and learned how to weld steel sculptures.

Career

Her first solo exhibition was in 1959 at the SculptureCenter. She made large figurative metal sculptors, often involving draped fabrics. Lekberg taught classes at the University of the Arts, from 1981 to 2001. She was a member of the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fin ...

. Lekberg was awarded the

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in fine arts two times (1957, 1959).

Personal life

In 1956, she married Victor Tamerlis, a rare-books dealer and together they lived in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

. They had a daughter born in 1962, Zoe Tamerlis Lund. The short film ''Zoe Rising'' (2014), documented their daughter's life through the memories of Barbara Lekberg. Lekberg died on February 14, 2018 in a nursing home in

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, after struggling with

Alzheimer’s disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As t ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lekberg, Barbara 1925 births 2018 deaths University of Iowa alumni Artists from Portland, Oregon Artists from New York City American women sculptors Deaths from dementia in New York (state) Deaths from Alzheimer's disease 21st-century American women artists