Erlebacher - "Still Life #1" One color realistic print/lithograph of various fruits and vegetables on a table and platter.

Martha Mayer Erlebacher • American (1937-2013)

Still Life #1 • Print / Lithograph on Paper 22" x 29"

For 36 years the two perfectionist artists shared an immaculate home. Together Walter and Martha Erlebacher made the journey against the flow of modern art, moving from abstraction to realism rather than the opposite, more beaten, path. He was a scientist before turning to sculpture where he applied his mathematics training to create precisely scaled and detailed human figures. His search was for eternal truths. The human figure became his guide. She followed.

In 1989, three years before Walter’s death, Martha Mayer Erlebacher painted a self-portrait, her eyes totally obscured beneath the wide brim of her straw hat because, “The eyes are the windows to the soul. I didn’t want to be that exposed.”

For 20 years after Walter’s death, Martha walked alone. She continued teaching at the Art Institute of Philadelphia, where they had both taught. Eventually she moved to New York to teach at the Academy of Art. Eventually her impeccable sense of humor returned. Eventually she continued the search for life’s enduring truths. She stayed on the artistic path she and Walter shared. “Walter sought to express universal emotional conditions – what it means to live. My work was much more subjective and emotionally motivated. I’m a gal, after all.”

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Then, in 2013, she stood in front of a group of friends, family and fellow artists at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC. She was there to accept the Grand Prize in the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, a yearly tribute to the idea that a “portrait can communicate much more than a likeness.” Her winning entry was a stark self-portrait. She wore the same severe black turtleneck as in her 1989 self-portrait. This time she stared directly at the viewer through the wire-rimmed glasses of an older woman. The stylish straw hat was gone, exposing her full head, bald from chemotherapy. Her eyes were clear, bright, and knowing … at long last, the windows into her soul were open. Three months later, Martha Mayer Erlebacher died.

She is remembered for her lifelong search. “I try to make art, which reaffirms that there is value in human life. It should give the sense that one is not alone, and is part of a group with similar needs, longings, hopes, dreams, fears and desires which transcend time.”

Canton Museum of Art Permanent Collection • Purchased by the Canton Museum of Art, 77.56

4 Ways to Sound Smart When Viewing at The Canton Museum of Art

1.
“She loved trompe l’oeil (fool the eye) drawings and paintings of hyper-realistic still lives that were, themselves, fool the eye pieces of wood or plastic. Fool the eye once shame on you. Fool it twice, shame on me.”

2.
“Her husband was a famed realistic sculptor. Together they used the human figure to explore eternal truths about life and death. It’s said their family conversations were, interesting.”

3.
“Many of her subjects were posed in backgrounds reminiscent of Renaissance paintings. Ancient literature and myths were often her inspiration.”

4.
“She believed that metaphor was critical to art. Although, perhaps she was speaking metaphorically.”

Mayer Erlebacher Timeline. Scroll over images to see timeline.

1937

Born in Jersey City, New Jersey.

1955-56

Attended Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

1956-60

Deciding to pursue a creative career, she enrolled at Pratt Institute in New York City where she studied Industrial design and received her Bachelor Degree. There she met Walter Erlebacher who had originally studied science and mathematics, but began studying sculpture due to a fascination with the human figure and its’ metaphorical aspects.

1961-63

Martha married Walter Erlebacher in 1961. She also attended graduate school at the Pratt Institute where she earned her Master in Fine Arts (MFA) in 1963. Before graduation she began developing a hyper-realistic painting style, heavily influenced by her husband and his fascination with High-Renaissance artists and their mastery of the human figure.

1964-65

Began teaching at the Pratt Institute. The following year she moved to the Parson’s School of Design, also in New York City.

1966

Awarded the Yaddo Fellowship to the legendary retreat in Saratoga Springs, New York. Walter started teaching at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the family moved there.

1976

She joined Walter on the faculty of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. This affiliation continued until 1993.

1982

Received a Senior Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

1991

Husband, Walter, died from cancer at the rather young age of 57. At the time of his death he was viewed as an authority on the anatomy of the human figure, and largely credited with a “revival of interest in using the human figure in sculpture to express artistic ideas.”

1992-06

After Walter’s death, Martha moved back to New York City where she taught at the Academy of Art. In 2006 she was the Chair of the Masters program.

1996

Received the Outstanding Teacher Award / Oil, from American Artist Magazine.

2010

Received the Award for Excellence in the Arts, from the Newington-Cropsey Foundation in New York City.

2013

Received the prestigious Grand Prize in the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Three months later she died of cancer.