A seminal figure in Los Angeles art history, Helen Lundeberg co-founded with her husband, Lorser Feitelson, an art movement called New Classicism, also known as Post Surrealism. It fused the fantastical style of Surrealism with the formal structure of Renaissance painting and made Surrealism “less weird.” Her painting was known for radiating a sense of calm and order, and reflecting what she perceived as the laws of nature. She painted many landscapes, but always from memory because she hated painting outdoors. She once said: “The time I tried it, the wind blew, and everything fell over. It was a mess” (Los Angeles Times 4/99). She was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1908, but she and her family moved to California when she was very young. By the age of sixteen Lundeberg became interested in art and in 1930, she attended the Stickney School of Art in Pasadena. Her teacher, Lorser Feitelson influenced her style greatly and she eventually found new ways to express herself through a more surrealistic approach. She often used hard-edged geometric shapes of color within her paintings or an intense focus on a single object. Early in her career Lundeberg’s art had been exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of Modern Art, both in New York. Later in her life she had work shown in the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1980.
