Sylvia Lark
Born1947
DiedDecember 27, 1990
Resting placeMountain View Memorial Park, Lakewood, Washington, U.S.
NationalitySeneca, United States
Occupation(s)painter, curator, professor
MovementAbstract expressionism
SpouseStephen M. Chase[1]
Children1[1]
AwardsFulbright grant (1977); CAA Award for Distinction (1991)
Websitewww.sylvialark.com

Sylvia Lark (1947–1990) was a Native American/Seneca artist,[2][3] curator, and educator. She best known as an Abstract expressionist painter and printmaker.[4][5] Lark lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for many years.

Early life and education

Lark was born in 1947 in Buffalo, New York.[6] She went to high school at Nardin Academy in Buffalo.[7] Lark attended school at the University of Siena; University at Buffalo (formally State University of New York, Buffalo) where she received her B.A. degree in 1969; Mills College; and the University of Wisconsin–Madison where she received her M.A. degree in 1970 and M.F.A. degree in 1972.[8][1][9]

Career

Starting in 1972, Lark taught art at California State University, Sacramento where she remained until 1976.[1] In 1977, she received a Fulbright-Hays Program grant and traveled and study in Korea and Japan.[8] Lark taught at the University of California, Berkeley from 1977 until 1990.[1] Students of Lark's included Shirin Neshat.[10] She was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award for teaching studio art by the College Art Association posthumously in 1991.[8]

Her early work used symbols and patterns, and there was a shift in her later career with more abstraction and overlapping colors with delicate textured surfaces.[9] She painted in oils and encaustics and printed monotypes.[1] Her 1983 painting series Jokhang, featured many textures and layers of colors painted over or under black leaves.[5][2] This series was a response to her visit to Jokhang Temple in Lhasa and her study of Tibetan spirituality.[2] Lark was curator of the exhibition, Prints: New Points of View (1978) at the Open Ring Galleries in Sacramento.[11]

In 1992, she was the second inductee into Nardin Academy's Alumnae Hall of Fame.[7] Lark had served on the National Board of the Women's Caucus for Art from 1978 to 1984; and was the Regional Coordinator for the Coalition of Women's Art Organization from 1978 to 1990.[1]

Death and legacy

Lark died on cancer at the age of 43 in Berkeley on December 27, 1990.[8]

Her works are in the museum collections at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco,[12] Metropolitan Museum of Art,[13] Crocker Art Museum, Sheldon Museum of Art, Oakland Museum of California,[14] and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.[14]

Exhibitions

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "University of California: In Memoriam, 1991". Online Archive of California (OAC). Regents of The University of California. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Fuller, Diana Burgess; Salvioni, Daniela (2002-05-29). Art/Women/California, 1950–2000: Parallels and Intersections. Univ of California Press. pp. 144, 149. ISBN 978-0-520-23065-1.
  3. Indian Truth, Issues 212-266. Indian Rights Association. 1974. p. 12.
  4. Hammond, Harmony; Quick-to-See Smith, Jaune (1985). Women of Sweetgrass, Cedar and Sage: Contemporary Art by Native American Women (Exhibition). Gallery American Indian Community House. ISBN 978-0934305006.
  5. 1 2 3 Boettger, Suzaan (February 1984). "Sylvia Lark, Jeremy Stone Gallery, San Francisco". Artforum.com. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Heller, Jules; Heller, Nancy G. (2013-12-19). North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-63882-5.
  7. 1 2 "Nardin Honors Artist Sylvia Lark". Buffalo News. June 5, 1992. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "Memorial Rites Set For Sylvia Lark, Abstract Painter, Professor of Art". Buffalo News. January 23, 1991. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
  9. 1 2 Moore, Sylvia (1989). Yesterday and Tomorrow: California Women Artists. Midmarch Arts Press. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-9602476-9-1.
  10. Cohen, Alina (2019-03-01). "Shirin Neshat on Her Path from Art School Outcast to Contemporary Art Icon". Artsy. Retrieved 2022-02-03.
  11. Dalkey, Victoria (November 25, 1978). "Opening Stabs Hole in Proposition 13 Cloud". The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, California). p. 19. Retrieved 2022-02-02 via Newspaper.com.
  12. "Sylvia Lark". Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF). 2018-09-21. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
  13. "Untitled, 1980". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
  14. 1 2 "Sylvia Lark, UC Berkeley Art Professor". Newspapers.com. The Sacramento Bee. 30 December 1990. p. 37. Retrieved 2022-02-03.
  15. "Art: S.F. Museum of Art". The Argus (Fremont, California). June 20, 1975. p. 25.
  16. "Southland Scene, Art Scene: Lark–Palmer Prints and Sculptures". Star-News (Pasadena, California). December 22, 1977. p. A-6.
  17. Johnson, Charles (16 October 1977). "The Sea Returns". Newspapers.com. The Sacramento Bee. p. 49. Retrieved 2022-02-03.
  18. "Group Shows: Palo Alto Art Center". Newspapers.com. The San Francisco Examiner. 13 January 1980. p. 283. Retrieved 2022-02-03.
  19. "'About Faces' Celebrates Portraiture, Preserve Interest in Ourselves". Newspapers.com. Oakland Tribune. 22 September 1987. p. 32 (C-3). Retrieved 2022-02-03.

Further reading

  • Blank, Chotsie; Beard, James (1982). California Artists Cook Book. Abbeville Press. ISBN 978-0896592469. includes recipes by Lark.
  • Frueh, Joanna (January 2, 1979). "Chicago: Kathe Keller and Sylvia Lark". Art in America. ISSN 0004-3214.
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