Martha Mayer Erlebacher
Three Cats at Dusk, 2002-03
oil on canvas
74  x 80 inches

Martha Erlebacher
Adam and Eve (The Return), 2001
oil on canvas
62 x 62  inches

Martha Erlebacher
Nectarines and Redware, 2003
oil on canvas
13 x 22  inches

Martha Erlebacher
Still Life with Aloe and Studio, 2003
oil on canvas
32 x 44  inches

Martha Erlebacher
The Shell, 2000
oil on canvas
20 x 20  inches

In her first exhibition with the gallery, Martha Mayer Erlebacher paints poems about the origin and nature of life itself.  From the viewpoint of her experience and her years as a painter of myth and allegorical narrative, she distills the essentials of existence in ravishing still-life and powerful figurative paintings.  

Erlebacher extends her vision through intensity of concentration, and, in so doing, creates images that power their message through to our psyches.  She first draws our focus by painting luminous subjects in a bold and reverent style, placing them in intense light against dark backgrounds to sharpen the view. 

As she sees the formal beauty in each object and figure she paints, she reveals it to us with startling ability and we see it at once.  The incredible color and sheen of a shell, the strength and purity of an attractive nude and the intriguing glaze of a perfect pot; all are presented with remarkable clarity in these paintings.  Thus, Martha Mayer Erlebacher takes us to the place she wants us to go.  When we get there, we see what she directs us to see. 

Once we see, we begin to understand.  These are the basics that we are seeing, the roots of our emotional lives.  Erlebacher does not so much touch as probe, deeper with each image, in a sort of complex fabrication that sets out before us everything we respond to, truly respond to, as people.  Lust, hunger, greed, heat, cold, beauty, horror; all are here and personal to those who can accept them.  With formidable intellect, amazing skill and tremendous talent, Erlebacher enables a journey to a place where our identities are drawn and defined.  Unlike many narrative painters, she does not draw us into her world.  Instead, she sets our world out before us and makes us examine it in close focus.

Martha Mayer Erlebacher was born 1937 in Jersey City, New Jersey and studied at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York.  Her work is featured in public collections including the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Library of Congress, Washington, DC, NC; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; Kemper Art Collection, Chicago, IL; and the Neuberger Museum, Purchase, NY, along with many others.

Her work is included in the private collections of Glenn C. Janss, Boise, ID; Jalane and Richard Davidson, Chicago, IL; Joel Bernstein, Chicago, IL; Mr. and Mrs. Frank H. Goodyear, Jr., Norristown, PA; Roy Neuberger, New York, NY; Theodore Stebbins, Boston, MA; Mary Steenburgen, Los Angeles; and Mr. and Mrs. Rick Segal.

Martha Mayer Erlebacher opens with a reception on November 13 from 5:30 – 7:30 pm, and will be on view through December 13, 2003. A full color catalogue will accompany the exhibition.

©2005 Forum Gallery