Ursula Sternberg
"A Woozy Delirium of Liberation"

Over the course of her life, Ursula Sternberg, a self-taught artist, developed a masterful visual vocabulary. Her figurative work portrays her subjects in pensive reflection, joyous reverie, or simple but profound acts of living. Ursula's art harkens back to a more intimate time - a belle époque, an era full of joie de vivre.

Even when she tackles more serious subjects, such as her family's flight from Nazi Germany, she does so capturing the "woozy delirium" of Liberation.

Her marriage to renowned conductor Jonathan Sternberg brought her to fantastic locales…timeless villages in southern France, the summer place of Pablo Casals…From Beijing to Venice, the small byways and major cities of the world figured lucidly into her ink sketches and more formal pieces.

Always with sketchbook in hand, Ursula recorded random images…of her family and friends, famous musicians, anonymous bystanders, animal pets…or the frequent, colorful musings of her fertile imagination. Everything and everyone around her was fodder for her practiced hand that turned these images into books, paintings, prints and sculptures.

Describing her method, which often evolved into visual diaries, she said:
"…Thoughts, smells and feelings of the moment somehow are unlocked even years later when I look at these drawings….in my studio I add color and finishing touches and write down the things I did not draw. Frequently I use poems which are meaningful to me and visually appealing. Then I paint them and around them so that the words become part of the picture, and the picture becomes part of the words. Sometimes I invent a story for the painted page. In this way both words and image are closely connected without either being an illustration of the other…"

The Victoria and Albert Museum holds a work of Ursula Sternberg in its permanent collection, as does the Rade Museum in Hamburg, Germany, Duke University and the New York Public Library. Her whimsically surreal journal-like oeuvres have been reproduced in a number of scholarly journals and have been the subject of numerous public and private, solo and group exhibitions and permanent collections in the United States and in Europe. She has been featured in a documentary films for German television and was interviewed about her art on National Public Radio.

Ursula Sternberg, who passed away in the year 2000, was truly a renaissance woman. Her work lives on in the hearts and minds of the many, many people she touched with her poignant, exuberant outlook.

"Seated Woman"



"The Mail From Tunis...probably"



"Wild Bird Cage"

"Prades, France"



"Asolo-Three Priests"
NFS



"Prés Barcelone"



"Schuykill Bridge"



"Schuykill River"



"Factories on the Schuykill"

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