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Sylvia Lark

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Sylvia Lark
Born
Sylvia L. Scappator

1947 (1947)
Buffalo, New York, U.S.
Died (aged 43)
Berkeley, California, U.S.
Resting placeMountain View Memorial Park, Lakewood, Washington, U.S.
NationalitySeneca, United States
Other namesSylvia Scappator Lark
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

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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

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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

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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

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g "University of California: In Memoriam, 1991". Online Archive of California (OAC). Regents of The University of California. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d Fuller, Diana Burgess; Salvioni, Daniela (May 29, 2002). 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. ^ a b c Boettger, Suzaan (February 1984). "Sylvia Lark, Jeremy Stone Gallery, San Francisco". Artforum.com. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
  6. ^ a b c d e Heller, Jules; Heller, Nancy G. (December 19, 2013). North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-63882-5.
  7. ^ a b "Nardin Honors Artist Sylvia Lark". The Buffalo News. June 5, 1992. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
  8. ^ a b c d "Memorial Rites Set For Sylvia Lark, Abstract Painter, Professor of Art". The Buffalo News. January 23, 1991. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
  9. ^ a b Moore, Sylvia (1989). Yesterday and Tomorrow: California Women Artists. Midmarch Arts Press. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-9602476-9-1.
  10. ^ Cohen, Alina (March 1, 2019). "Shirin Neshat on Her Path from Art School Outcast to Contemporary Art Icon". Artsy. Retrieved February 3, 2022.
  11. ^ Dalkey, Victoria (November 25, 1978). "Opening Stabs Hole in Proposition 13 Cloud". The Sacramento Bee. p. 19. Retrieved August 2, 2024 – via Newspaper.com.
  12. ^ "Sylvia Lark". Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF). September 21, 2018. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
  13. ^ "Untitled, 1980". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
  14. ^ a b "Sylvia Lark, UC Berkeley Art Professor". The Sacramento Bee. December 30, 1990. p. 37. Retrieved April 2, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "Art: S.F. Museum of Art". The Argus. Fremont, California. June 20, 1975. p. 24. Retrieved August 2, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "Southland Scene, Art Scene: Lark–Palmer Prints and Sculptures". Pasadena Star-News. December 22, 1977. p. A-6.
  17. ^ Johnson, Charles (October 16, 1977). "The Sea Returns". The Sacramento Bee. p. 49. Retrieved August 2, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ "'About Faces' Celebrates Portraiture, Preserve Interest in Ourselves". Oakland Tribune. September 22, 1987. p. 32 (C-3). Retrieved August 2, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.

Further reading

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  • 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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