Barbara Lekberg

After studying sculpture with Humbert Albrizio at the University of Iowa, Barbara Lekberg moved to New York City in 1948. There she learned to weld with Sahl Swarz at the Sculpture Center, an organization created by sculptor Dorothea Denslow. Lekberg developed a flexible, innovative technique of welding strips of steel, one-sixteenth of an inch wide, into dynamic expressionistic figures and emerged as a member of direct welders working in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

She explains: “From earliest childhood I have studied the way things move . . . the way sheets billow in the wind . . . the stress and release of athletes and dancers, people walking, singing, crying.”

Dissatisfied with the way welded steel weathered outdoors, Lekburg turned to bronze casting, but her sculpture lost none of its windswept motion. The fluid movements of Martha Graham, Loie Fuller and other dancers inspired many works.

 

Passages

Tree of Life

Day Dreamer

Sea Wind

Equilibrium