Nora Sumberg (artist)
Encyclopedia
Nora Sumberg is an Australian landscape painter whose work has over time become increasingly lyrical, abstract and atmospheric. Her art is characterized by intense, floating swathes of colour, impressionistic and ambiguous terrain and glowing, multi-directional light sources. Examples of Sumberg's art are held in The National Gallery of Victoria, The Queensland Art Gallery
, The Heide Museum of Modern Art
and the Smorgan Collection. Sumberg is also the granddaughter of Voldemar Sumberg, the Minister for Social Affairs under the Otto Tief Government in Estonia. Estonian culture is important to Sumberg and she has an artist residency in Tallinn
in 2011.
in 1996.
Scholarship at the New York Studio School, New York, Sumberg lived in the Hotel Chelsea
and became acquainted with and befriended notable musicians and performers such as Blondie
, Elvis Costello
, Lou Reed
, Johnny Rotten, Richard Hell
and filmmaker Luis Bunuel
. During this period Sumberg dressed in punk
clothing designed by her friend, fashion designer Jenny Bannister
, when punk itself as a cultural movement had barely begun to make an impression in America. Her teachers at Caulfield Institute of Technology included Australian artist Gareth Sansom
, to whom she was married for 10 years. Australian born singer-songwriter Nick Cave
was a fellow student and friend of Sumberg's.
Sumberg's early paintings were figurative and somewhat indebted to pop art and the milieu she was part of, with areas of bold, flat colour and schematic, heavily out-lined drawing, done in enamel on Masonite
. Australian artist and critic Robert Rooney wrote of these works: “…The best are boldly painted and ambitiously constructed, often with the aid of fish-eye lens distortion…. Surfaces are smooth, with an occasional drip on a tuxedo in ‘Dijon Waiter’ or a wrinkled skin in ‘Model Lisa No. 6.’ Flat areas and images are outlined in black.”
, wrote: "Too little of the art I see forces my eye to change gear, and I like Sumberg's paintings for just this reason".
Later work saw her largely dispense with the depiction of discrete forms and spatial discontinuities as atmospheric unity and drama assumed a greater importance, particularly the play of light and colouristic intensity. Outlines became less distinct and were subsumed by the overall atmospherics and an increasingly lyrical yet highly considered paint handling. Much of Sumberg's work stems from an emotional, deeply personal response to the Croajingalong National Park, located on the South-East coast of Australia.
Australian artists who have inspired Sumberg include Clarice Beckett
and Ken Whisson, the former for her mastery of mood and understatement and the latter for his linear, expressive brushwork. Many recent paintings, such as 'Discombobulation 2', 2004, include abstract elements combined with broadly evoked terrain, foliage and large bodies of water. Poetic and philosophical titles are important to Sumberg. For example: 'Anyone Who Thinks He Understands Nature Should Look Again', 'The Listener', 'Upon a Red Cloud Floating', 'Mostly Awake' and 'Frequencies'.
Jenny Zimmer, reviewing Sumberg's 1990 exhibition 'Purely Painting' at Michael Wardell Gallery, wrote that Sumberg: "transforms sun and cloud and the effects of each on the other into bursts of sensation. Though infused with the nature worship of European romanticism, Sumberg's effects are modern".
Sumberg is currently represented by Jenny Port Gallery in Richmond, Victoria, Australia.
Queensland Art Gallery
The Queensland Art Gallery is part of the Queensland Cultural Centre, and is located nearest to Brisbane River at South Bank...
, The Heide Museum of Modern Art
Heide Museum of Modern Art
Heide Museum of Modern Art, more commonly just Heide, is a contemporary art museum located in Bulleen, east of Melbourne, Australia. Established in 1981, the museum comprises several detached buildings and surrounding gardens & parklands of historical importance that are used as gallery spaces to...
and the Smorgan Collection. Sumberg is also the granddaughter of Voldemar Sumberg, the Minister for Social Affairs under the Otto Tief Government in Estonia. Estonian culture is important to Sumberg and she has an artist residency in Tallinn
Tallinn
Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...
in 2011.
Education
Sumberg completed a Diploma in Fine Arts (painting) at Caulfield Institute of Technology, Chisholm (now Monash University) followed by Postgraduate Studies at the New York Studio School, New York, in 1978. She attained Master of Fine Arts at Monash UniversityMonash University
Monash University is a public university based in Melbourne, Victoria. It was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. Monash is a member of Australia's Group of Eight and the ASAIHL....
in 1996.
Formative years
While studying on an Australia CouncilAustralia Council
The Australia Council, informally known as the Australia Council for the Arts, is the official arts council or arts funding body of the Government of Australia.-Function:...
Scholarship at the New York Studio School, New York, Sumberg lived in the Hotel Chelsea
Hotel Chelsea
The Hotel Chelsea, also known as the Chelsea Hotel, or simply the Chelsea, is a historic New York City hotel and landmark, known primarily for its history of notable residents...
and became acquainted with and befriended notable musicians and performers such as Blondie
Blondie (band)
Blondie is an American rock band, founded by singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band was a pioneer in the early American New Wave and punk scenes of the mid-1970s...
, Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
, Lou Reed
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...
, Johnny Rotten, Richard Hell
Richard Hell
Richard Hell is a singer, songwriter, bass guitarist, and writer.Richard Hell was an innovator of punk music and fashion. He was one of the first to spike his hair and wear torn, cut and drawn-on shirts, often held together with safety pins...
and filmmaker Luis Bunuel
Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel Portolés was a Spanish-born filmmaker — later a naturalized citizen of Mexico — who worked in Spain, Mexico, France and the US..-Early years:...
. During this period Sumberg dressed in punk
Punk subculture
The punk subculture includes a diverse array of ideologies, and forms of expression, including fashion, visual art, dance, literature, and film, which grew out of punk rock.-History:...
clothing designed by her friend, fashion designer Jenny Bannister
Jenny Bannister
-Early life:Bannister studied Fashion Design and Production at RMIT's Emily McPherson College, and commenced her career in 1975 as a recycled denim designer.-Career:...
, when punk itself as a cultural movement had barely begun to make an impression in America. Her teachers at Caulfield Institute of Technology included Australian artist Gareth Sansom
Gareth Sansom
Gareth Sansom is an Australian artist, painter, printmaker and collagist and winner of the 2008 John McCaughey Memorial Prize of $100,000....
, to whom she was married for 10 years. Australian born singer-songwriter Nick Cave
Nick Cave
Nicholas Edward "Nick" Cave is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional film actor.He is best known for his work as a frontman of the critically acclaimed rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in 1984, a group known for its eclectic influences and...
was a fellow student and friend of Sumberg's.
Sumberg's early paintings were figurative and somewhat indebted to pop art and the milieu she was part of, with areas of bold, flat colour and schematic, heavily out-lined drawing, done in enamel on Masonite
Masonite
Masonite is a type of hardboard invented by William H. Mason.-History:Masonite was invented in 1924 in Laurel, Mississippi, by William H. Mason. Mass production started in 1929. In the 1930s and 1940s Masonite was used for many applications including doors, roofing, walls, desktops, and canoes...
. Australian artist and critic Robert Rooney wrote of these works: “…The best are boldly painted and ambitiously constructed, often with the aid of fish-eye lens distortion…. Surfaces are smooth, with an occasional drip on a tuxedo in ‘Dijon Waiter’ or a wrinkled skin in ‘Model Lisa No. 6.’ Flat areas and images are outlined in black.”
Maturity
Sumberg’s shift into landscape included the introduction of architectural elements and props, frequently depicting expressive, labyrinthine mazes or Italian Villa Garden features such as topiary, gazebos, statues and columns. Sumberg's construction of space was unconventional and complex, with multiple or hidden horizons and the cropping and over-lapping of contradictory, slightly tilted perspectives (often the result of separately painted panels joined together), giving perhaps a subjective account of wandering through the many windings and turnings of such gardens. These works followed a residency at the Australia Council’s Besozzo Studio, where Sumberg studied 19thC Italian Villa gardens. These paintings were typically large, multi-panel works. Noted Australian poet and art critic Gary CatalanoGary Catalano
Gary Catalano was an Australian poet and art critic.-Life:Calatano was born on 30 October 1947 in Brisbane. He married writer Helen Hewitt in 1990...
, wrote: "Too little of the art I see forces my eye to change gear, and I like Sumberg's paintings for just this reason".
Later work saw her largely dispense with the depiction of discrete forms and spatial discontinuities as atmospheric unity and drama assumed a greater importance, particularly the play of light and colouristic intensity. Outlines became less distinct and were subsumed by the overall atmospherics and an increasingly lyrical yet highly considered paint handling. Much of Sumberg's work stems from an emotional, deeply personal response to the Croajingalong National Park, located on the South-East coast of Australia.
Australian artists who have inspired Sumberg include Clarice Beckett
Clarice Beckett
Clarice Majoribanks Beckett was an Australian painter born in Casterton, Victoria. Her works are featured in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria and the Art Gallery of South Australia....
and Ken Whisson, the former for her mastery of mood and understatement and the latter for his linear, expressive brushwork. Many recent paintings, such as 'Discombobulation 2', 2004, include abstract elements combined with broadly evoked terrain, foliage and large bodies of water. Poetic and philosophical titles are important to Sumberg. For example: 'Anyone Who Thinks He Understands Nature Should Look Again', 'The Listener', 'Upon a Red Cloud Floating', 'Mostly Awake' and 'Frequencies'.
Jenny Zimmer, reviewing Sumberg's 1990 exhibition 'Purely Painting' at Michael Wardell Gallery, wrote that Sumberg: "transforms sun and cloud and the effects of each on the other into bursts of sensation. Though infused with the nature worship of European romanticism, Sumberg's effects are modern".
Sumberg is currently represented by Jenny Port Gallery in Richmond, Victoria, Australia.
Awards and prizes
- 1978 Visual Arts Board, Australia Council, Peter Brown Memorial Scholarship, New York Studio School, USA
- 1982 Visual Arts Board, Australia Council, Besozzo Studio
- 1988 Visual Arts Board, Australia Council, Project Grant
- 1989 St Kilda City Council Acquisition Drawing Prize, Melbourne
- 2000 Artist in Residence, Bundanon, The Arthur & Yvonne Boyd Program for the Arts, Shoalhaven, NSW
- 2003 Artist in Residence, The Tower Studio, Victorian Trades Hall Council, Melbourne
- 2004 Artist in Residence, St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne
- 2005 Artist in Residence, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Brisbane
- 2007 Artist in Residence, Red Gate GalleryRed Gate GalleryRed Gate Gallery, founded by Brian Wallace, is Beijing’s first private contemporary art gallery. Its location in Dongbianmen Watchtower, one of the few Ming dynasty towers to have survived the destruction of the city wall, places the articles of China’s contemporary artistic expression in...
, Beijing, China
Collections
- National Gallery of VictoriaNational Gallery of VictoriaThe National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites...
, Melbourne - Queensland Art GalleryQueensland Art GalleryThe Queensland Art Gallery is part of the Queensland Cultural Centre, and is located nearest to Brisbane River at South Bank...
, Brisbane - Heide Museum of Modern ArtHeide Museum of Modern ArtHeide Museum of Modern Art, more commonly just Heide, is a contemporary art museum located in Bulleen, east of Melbourne, Australia. Established in 1981, the museum comprises several detached buildings and surrounding gardens & parklands of historical importance that are used as gallery spaces to...
- Museum of Contemporary Art, SydneyMuseum of Contemporary Art, SydneyThe Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Australia is an Australian museum solely dedicated to exhibiting, interpreting and collecting contemporary art, both from across Australia and around the world...
- Monash UniversityMonash UniversityMonash University is a public university based in Melbourne, Victoria. It was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. Monash is a member of Australia's Group of Eight and the ASAIHL....
- Smorgan Collection
- Baillieu Myer Collection
- The Arthur and Yvonne Boyd Centre for the Arts
- ArtbankArtbankArtbank is an art rental program established in 1980 by the Australian Government. It supports contemporary Australian artists and encourages a wider appreciation of their work by buying artworks which it then rents to public and private sector clients. It was modeled on the Canadian Art Bank,...
, Sydney
External links
- Nora Sumberg at Jenny Port Gallery
- Nora Sumberg: paintings at Red Gallery (Extensive image base).