Jack Lembeck B.1942

“Image Minded”

Acrylic on Canvas, 66x77” signed and inscribed on verso

Known for Abstract Illusionism, Jack Lembeck was one of the most celebrated painters in this style during the 1970s and 1980s. It was a brief phase of Abstract Expressionism that developed with experiments that combined Op Art with emotional expressions, and his painting had colorful lines, spots, dribbles and splashes of paint that seem to dance upon a flat surface.

The following biography is provided to AskART.com by the artist, Jack Lembeck, who gave permission to take the information from his web site: jaxart.tripod.com/index-3.html:

Born in Saint Louis, Missouri, Jack Lembeck attended Washington University in Saint Louis for two years and then earned a BFA degree from the University of Kansas. He earned an MFA degree from Yale University where he worked closely with well known artists Jack Tworkov, Al Held, and Lester Johnson. By 1970, he was a full-time faculty member at Yale University and became a Morese-Stiles Fellow under Master Bart Giamatti.

In 1969, he joined a small artists co-op to become an art pioneer in the now fashionable SoHo district of New York. As a reorganization president, he converted this co-op on West Broadway into one of the earliest alternative exhibition spaces for emerging artists. In 1970, his first solo exhibition was there, now called Razor Gallery, and consisted of paintings influenced by his investigations at Yale of children's art development.

From Razor Gallery, Lembeck launched an exhibition career, and included primitive art, graffiti, and subjects related to the harsh physical environment of New York City. He has also done installations, collaborations with other artists as well as solo exhibitions with professional galleries and institutions.