AN ANALYSIS OF THE ARTIST'S WORK

“I try to make art, which reaffirms to the viewer that there is a value in human life. It should give the sense that one is not alone, and that one is part of a group with similar needs, longings, hopes, dreams, fears and desires which transcend time (the subjects of art)." – Excerpt from Martha Mayer Erlebacher’s “Artist Statement”

Martha Mayer Erlebacher is a noted American painter, winning numerous awards and honors for her talent as a figurative painter. In the manner of great American Realist Thomas Eakins, Erlebacher demonstrates her mastery of the human form in her powerful, large-scale paintings of nudes and draped figures. While grounding much of her life’s work in the tradition of the great Italian and French masters of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, she incorporates her own knowledge of modernism by questioning the origin and value of human life in her paintings. Believing that “the human experience is the proper subject matter of art,” Erlebacher paints timeless nudes that offer insight into the emotions and complexities inherent in all human beings. Though a teacher of the stern Realist style, she incorporates a masterful technique that never fails to subtly allude to the duality of the unadorned nude, which is at once, both sensual and noble.

The artist’s astute skill is also apparent in her sumptuously painted still lifes and romantic, modern-day vanitas paintings. Her handling of light and contrast combined with her keen sense of beauty transforms everyday objects into subjects of intrigue. Recently, Erlebacher has found inspiration in a ceramic duck in her series titled Avant Duck: A Fowl History of Modern Art. As Curator Susan Bush states, “For the artist [Erlebacher] the bird serves as a consistent tool to portray her understanding of history, technique, and composition, all with tongue planted firmly in beak.” Through her clever disguising of the Avant Duck as the life-spring of modernism, Erlebacher succeeds in elevating a kitschy icon into a noble object of fascination.

Whether in her nudes, still lifes, vanitas paintings, or even behind the veil of the modernist Avant Duck, the artist’s balanced synthesis of classicism and modernism shines through, ultimately allowing for her own place in the contemporary art world.

EDUCATION

1955-56 Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA
1956-60 Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, Bachelor of Industrial Design
1961-63 Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, Master of Fine Arts

AWARDS & AFFILIATIONS

1960 Dean’s Medal, Highest Scholastic Achievement, Pratt Institute
1966, 1973 Yaddo Fellowship
1967 Bertha Shay Award, Cheltenham Art Center, Cheltenham, PA
1973 Netsky-Sernaker Memorial Prize, Cheletenham Art Center, Cheltenham, PA
1974 Vivian and Mayer P. Potamkin Prize, Cheltenham Art Center, Cheltenham, PA
1978 Ingram Merill Foundation Grant
1982 Senior Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts
1986 Adjunct Professor of Art, the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA
1987 Mellon Venture Fund Grant, the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA
1988 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship in the Visual Arts
1993 Commencement Speaker, The Graduate School of Figurative Art of the New York Academy of Art
1996 Outstanding Teacher Award/ Oil, American Artist Magazine
2010 Award for Excellence in the Arts, Newington-Cropsey Foundation, NY

COLLECTIONS

Albrecht Museum of Art, Saint Joseph, MO
Ashville Art Museum, Asheville, NC
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, IL
Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA
Canton Museum of Art, OH
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, CA
Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Fort Wayne Museum, Fort Wayne, IN
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ
Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, CA
Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, PA
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Racine Art Museum, Racine WI
University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN
University of Michigan Art Gallery, Ann Arbor, MI
Weatherspoon Gallery, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT

TEACHING

1962 Art League, NYC
1964-65 Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
1965-66 Parson’s School of Design, NYC
1966-68 Philadelphia College of Art, Philadelphia, PA
1975-78 Philadelphia College of Art, Philadelphia, PA
1986 La Napoule Art Foundation, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH
1978-93 University of the Arts, PA
1992-06 Graduate School of Figurative Art of the New York Academy of Art, NYC

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Avant Duck: A Fowl History of Modern Art, Santa Barbara, CA: Sullivan Goss- An American Gallery, December 1- January 27, 2007.
2. Between Heaven and Earth: The Paintings of Martha Mayer Erlebaccher, Altoona, PA: Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, February 10- April 30, 2006.
3. Martha Mayer Erlebacher, Elmira, NY: Arnot Art Museum, February 9- March 18, 2001.
4. Martha Mayer Erlebacher Paintings, New York, NY: Forum Gallery, November 13- December 13, 2003.
5. Martha Mayer Erlebacher, Philadelphia, PA: The More Gallery, March 27- May 9, 1998.