© The Feitelson / Lundeberg Art Foundation

Work Acquired: Santa Barbara Museum of Art

November 24, 2019

Helen Lundeberg's original drawing for her painting called The Portrait was purchased by the Founation from a private collection, with the hope the museum would accept it as a resource for researchers; this gift has been accepted. The drawing is full scale and evidences graphite on verso that would have been used to transfer the image to canvas.

SPOTLIGHT

GREY INTERIOR II

Helen Lundeberg, Grey Interior II, 1979 acrylic on canvas 60” x 50”, Collection and © The Feitelson / Lundeberg Art Foundation, Courtesy Louis Stern Fine Arts.

Helen Lundeberg’s Grey Interior II, 1979 was exhibited several times shortly after the painting was completed. It was purchased by a corporate collector in 1986 and, as far as we know, not exhibited since. Several members of our Board recall Lundeberg expressing particular satisfaction with this work. In 2017 the Foundation reaquired the painting for its collection. Lundeberg prepared the following statement which was located in the Feitelson/Lundeberg Papers at the Archive of American Art:

“GRAY INTERIOR II is a recent work, one of a series of “gray” paintings, which represents some of the themes and pictorial devices and structures which have recurred throughout my work for many years. Closely related color (in this painting, grays varied by small additions of raw umber and red); the use of areas of white-primed canvas as form; paintings within the painting; abstract evocation of landscape and architectural fragments; cast shadows to enhance 3-D illusion. It also represents an intention, constant in my work, to create a subjective entity both formal and lyrical through strictly planned and executed organization, of colors, forms, and value.”

Lundeberg's statement has been reproduced verbatim. We are aware that there is a discepancy between her spelling of "Gray" and the title for this work in numerous exhibitions and articles: Grey Interior II.