Shown is “Pioneers of the West,” 1934, by Helen Lundeberg. Image provided.

By Darla McCammon
and DeeAnna Muraski
Guest Columnists

WARSAW — This week we continue our voyage across time and throughout America to discover artistic influences. Our artist this week, Helen Lundeberg, was born in Chicago in 1908.

During this time, Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt, a Republican from New York, was president, and the ball dropped on New Year’s Eve in New York’s Times Square for the first time. The American flag received its 46th star thanks to Oklahoma joining the union. The men’s 400-meter Olympic gold medal was awarded for the first time to an African-American: John Baxter Taylor, a graduate of Pennsylvania University. The United Parcel Service began operation, and production of the Model-T started. The bubbling, bustling and innovation of the United States was palpable.

While Lundeberg was born in Chicago, she ended up spending very little time there. Her family quickly relocated to the sandy warm beaches of California. Specifically, Pasadena, the home of the Tournament of Roses and Rose Parade — another New Year’s tradition. Unlike all of our other artists in this series, Lundeberg did not take an art sabbatical to the European art scene, but mainly because she ended up under the tutelage of an experienced art teacher. Their romance and eventual marriage reads like a Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall biopic. Her art and research are greatly influenced by this teacher, lover and eventual husband, Lorser Feitelson.

The significance of her reluctance to tour the European art scene is poignant. In Europe it was de rigueur to embrace surrealism. Surrealism was a stark contrast from staged portraits, as it involved putting your wildest dreams on canvas, which generally involved a lot of all-seeing eyes, invisible faces and lots of clouds. I think I would rather depict stacks of money and cuddly puppies, a nod to the inability to buy love.

Thus, without being involved in this movement, Lundeberg famously unintentionally created the American equivalent: post-surrealism. She was quoted as saying: “I don’t like disorder, or confusion or violence. I know they exist in the world but why should I have to paint them.”

This helps us make sense of her post-surrealism movement. In this movement, the artists create actual items, not dream items, with double or hidden meanings. The artist will leave subtle clues or allow the viewer to interpret. Two pears on a cutting board with a barren tree in the background could represent two sweet young lovers being ready to be chopped up by the stark cold world. With World War II brewing, the world as it was known felt like an out-of-body experience further advancing the interest in post-surrealism art.

Lundeberg continued to paint even after she reached 90 years old. She experimented with many techniques, painting mediums and large-scale murals — numerous ones still existing in California. She helped put the American art scene on the map and secure this spot for artists following in her blazing trail.

Darla McCammon is an artist, columnist and author. DeeAnna Muraski is executive director of Operation Read USA Inc. Send an email to the mother/daughter team at either [email protected] or [email protected].