Works by painters Lambert, Sperber on display

The Waseca Art Center (WAC) opened new displays and held a reception on Saturday, May 9, featuring Steven Sperber and Ava Lambert. Sperber, originally from Brooklyn, New York, recently retired. Lambert is a self-taught artist born and based out of Minneapolis.

 

After a short introduction and artist mission statements from WAC, Vice President Penny Vought  introduced her and said, “Ava, when I first saw some of your paintings, I thought they were photos.”

 

Lambert, who has received regional and international awards and recognition said, “I spend anywhere from 20 to 80 hours on each painting. Some of them are from canvases I set up in the field, where I will spend time out there painting the subject matter. But many of them, like the paintings from the Twin Cities of the streets and buildings, I take pictures of them so I can do it from home.” Her masterpiece is a recreation of a Johannes Vermeer painting titled, “Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window,” worth a large amount of money. Vermeer, a painter from the Golden age of Dutch paintings, first completed the painting in 1659, which was replicated by Lambert step by step. She even has a hardcover book dedicated to her painstaking process. 

 

She was asked by a guest of the WAC, “Have you ever started a painting as a day painting, but changed it to a night theme over the course of painting it?” She replied, “If I start a daytime painting, I usually keep the day theme.” She was also asked about her Vermeer painting, and if she was going to pick another giant project like that and she said, “Maybe, but if I do, I will probably pick something by Cornelius Pietersz Bega (1632-1664), I have preference for Dutch artists.”

 

Sperber’s work was featured in the Beckmann Gallery. This former mathematician taught at the University of Minnesota School of Mathematics for 48 years and retired on his 80th birthday. One particular painting of interest was titled “The Sad” which featured a solo figure in a desolate lonely place, indicated by an orange background.

 

Another painting titled, “The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,” drew a question from his grandson, “How old were you in that painting?” To which Sperber replied, “That painting actually changed for me, it featured me from 20 to 30 years ago, but it’s changed because now I’m older than that man in the painting.” Some of his paintings have a Picasso feel to them, said Sperber, “I don’t want to copy anyone, but I do like to understand how their process works, if I can I try to break that down. I like to capture ordinary people at work.” He was asked about his career as a math man and he replied with a laugh, “I don’t know many artists who were in mathematics.”

 

Works by Steven Sperber and Ava Lambert will be on display at the Waseca Art Center until Friday, June 12.