|
Marianne Lieberman, The Dragon Won, 1977
|
Marianne Lieberman, Ancient Nostfers, N/A
|
Displayed alongside Unflinching: A Selection of Works by Elizabeth Catlett (who was a great inspiration to Marianne Lieberman), the lithographs and etchings in this exhibition explore themes of motherhood, resiliency amidst trauma, and the exploration inherent in creating lithographs.
Lieberman was born in Vienna, Austria in 1927 to a Jewish father and Catholic mother and had an immediate love for drawing. At age eleven, Nazi forces took over Austria, which permanently altered her family's history, her identity, and approach to art making. Her father was forced to flee to America and she had to move around Europe with her mother to remain safe. After returning to Vienna, she was ostracized because of the Nuremberg Race Laws, which labeled her as a 'Mischlinge' (person with one or two Jewish grandparents). From 1945 to 1947, she attended a trade school for design and pattern making, which first allowed her to pursue art as a career. In 1947, she emigrated from Austria to New York and began working in the garment industry while attending the Art Students' League.
In 1952, Lieberman and her husband moved to Charlotte, NC where she worked with a variety of artists and craftspeople. While working at the Mint Museum, she learned about Cado inks with Alice Steadman, oil painting with June Smith Payne, and speed drawing with Robert Schlageter.
In 1964, Lieberman began classes at the Intituto Allende in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where she took her first lithography class with Dieter Kortlang. She was immediately enthralled by the medium and felt it helped her process her feelings. She states, "My preparation for such work was meditation on my emotional state. I guided my feelings through my brushwork onto this receptive surface, the limestone, which is extraordinarily sensitive to delicate touch, absorbing anger, love, and passion." Alone in Town (1966), which is part of the "Feeding the Stone" exhibition and shown below, was the first lithograph she ever made.
Marianne Lieberman, Alone In Town, 1966
Many works in this exhibition express the strength and tenacity of women, which reflects Lieberman's feminist activism while living in Charlotte. She was a pro-choice advocate and founded the Charlotte chapter of the National Abortion Rights Action League Foundation (NARAL) while serving as a member of the national board. The etching Last Illegal Abortion (1974) depicts Lieberman's experience with an illegal abortion after being raped upon her arrival in New York. She believed it was necessary for women to have a choice in their reproductive system and not have to turn toward dangerous, illegal procedures.
Not only do all of Lieberman's works use rich iconography and metaphor to tell her stories, but they also express the identity Lieberman had to recreate for herself after facing persecution in Austria. While she sometimes struggled to balance her responsibilities as a wife, mother, and artist, each of her artworks is an outpouring of emotions. She once wrote, "Until now art has been my medium for searching, for crying, for honoring pain. I recorded love ties and sexual milestones and took my anger and fed it to the stone. I have painted my search, and in the process found my way."
Online Resources
___________________________
Created by RJ Maupin, Library Volunteer
