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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. Her mother was music teacher Mildred Anderson, and her father was in the family lumber business, Melvin Hult. She spent her early childhood in Oregon, and later in Illinois and Iowa.

Lekberg attended University of Iowa, studying sculpture under Humbert Albrizio [Wikidata], Philip Guston, and Mauricio Lasansky. 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), 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. Lekberg was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship 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. 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, after struggling with Alzheimer's disease.

References

1. ^ Genzlinger, Neil (2018-03-03). "Barbara Lekberg, Artist With a Blowtorch, Dies at 92". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-08-30.
2. "Barbara Lekberg". Figge Art Museum. Archived from the original on 2021-08-30. Retrieved 2021-08-30.
3. Delahanty, Patricia (Winter 2011). "Movement is in the Vibration Between the Figure and the Context, Barbara Lekberg". Sculpture Review.
4. ^ Ashton, Howard Devreedore (March 6, 1959). "Art: Solo Show of Metal Sculpture; Welded Works by Miss Lekberg on View Primary Interest in Figures Revealed". The New York Times. p. 19. ISSN 0362-4331.
5. "All National Academicians (1825 - Present)". National Academy of Design. Retrieved 2021-08-30.
6. "Barbara Lekberg". John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. Archived from the original on 2021-05-15. Retrieved 2021-08-30.
7. "Exclusive clip: 'Zoe Rising'". USA TODAY. January 22, 2014. Archived from the original on 2014-01-23. Retrieved 2021-08-30.

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