James Cooper, Director of the Newington-Cropsey Cultural Studies Center presenting the 2010 award to Martha Mayer Erlebacher.

The Newington-Cropsey Cultural Studies Center is proud to announce that the painter and teacher Martha Mayer Erlebacher, a major figure in the contemporary realism revival, was the recipient of its twelfth annual Award for Excellence in the Arts. The Award was presented at a dinner on February 26th, 2010, at the Lotos Club in New York City.
 
Throughout her long career, Martha Mayer Erlebacher, who received her M.F.A. from Pratt Institute in 1963, has sought to reconnect art to the Western cultural tradition. Devoted to realism, the depiction of nature and the human figure, she goes beyond mimesis in her allegorical narratives, vanitas still lifes and confrontation of modern anxieties. Her work has been seen in many solo and group exhibitions, and her paintings are featured in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Cleveland Museum of Art, among other institutions. Both as a practicing painter and a teacher, she testifies to the perennial importance of studying anatomy, mythology and history as the underpinning of a viable classical style. Erlebacher has had a formative influence on two generations of students at premier schools such as the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pratt Institute, Parsons School of Design and the New York Academy of Art, where she served as Chairman of the M.F.A. program. She has guest lectured at Yale University, Vassar College and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Among other honors, she was awarded a Senior Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1982 and named Outstanding Teacher in Oil by American Artist Magazine in 1996.

A podcast interview with Martha can be found on this website at: www.nccsc.net/podcast.

For more information on Martha’s work, visit her website: http://marthamayererlebacher.com/

The Newington-Cropsey Cultural Studies Center Award for Excellence in the Arts is presented annually to an individual who has made a significant contribution to the arts and society. Previous recipients: Frederick E. Hart, Frank Mason, Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, Victoria R. Sirota, Henry Hope Reed, William H. Gerdts, Burton Silverman, Alvin Holm, Robert Fagles, Donald Kuspit and Dana Gioia.