Late Escondido artist Sternberg's works for sale at San Diego exhibit

By: PAM KRAGEN - Staff Writer | Wednesday, January 7, 2004 1:15 PM PST ∞

A large-scale exhibit of works by the late Escondido artist Harry Sternberg is on display this month at the University of San Diego, and nearly all of the pieces are for sale.

Mary Sternberg, who was married to the artist for 70 years until his death in November 2001, said that she's excited about the three-part exhibit and sale at USD.

"I'm not sad to be parting with these things, not at all," said Mary, who is now wheelchair-bound and lives in an Escondido retirement center. "Harry left his artwork for me and for his daughter, Leslie, as our way of life. The money will come in handy for us both; you bet it will."

The exhibit, "Harry Sternberg: Paintings, Drawings and Prints," was originally planned as just a retrospective, but Sternberg said that when the exhibit curators asked her to gather prices for each piece in the show for insurance purposes, she got the idea to sell most of them.

"I called them up and said 'I'm so glad you're going to sell them because we could really use the money right now.' I guess I caught them by some kind of shock," Sternberg said of the galleries' directors' reaction. "But they agreed, so everything in the show is for sale except for two or three pieces that my daughter wants."

USD galleries director/curator Mary Whelan said the 50-piece exhibit is divided up into three parts, each one representing a different phase of Sternberg's career.

The Founders Gallery in Founders Hall is showing Sternberg's "Tallit Series," which includes paintings, drawings and prints depicting Jewish life of prayer and study. And two galleries in the Joan Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice are dedicated to Sternberg's "Self-Portrait Series" and "Works of the 1930s and '40s." Sternberg's self-portrait series, which was shown in Escondido in 2000, spans seven decades and includes multimedia works, paintings and pieces from his "Life in Woodcuts" series. The "Works of the 1930s and '40s" show includes some of Sternberg's famous early prints depicting steelworkers, coal miners and social issues.

Born in 1904 in New York City's Manhattan, Sternberg began exhibiting his etchings and prints from his own New York studio in 1926, and his striking images were soon being exhibited internationally. Sternberg's paintings and prints during the Depression era highlighted the plight of the American working man and of racial intolerance in the Deep South. Some of his paintings and etchings of laborers are among his most famous works, including the 1930s pieces "Riveter" and "Drilling a Breast."

He married the former Mary E. Gosney in 1931, and a year later they moved to Southern California, where he took up a teaching position at the University of Southern California's Idyllwild campus. The Sternbergs moved to Escondido in 1966.

Although he was in ill health during the last year of his life, Sternberg continued painting until the end of his life.

"Harry Sternberg: Paintings, Drawings and Prints"

When: Noon-4 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays; noon-6 p.m., Thursdays; through Feb. 28

Where: Founders Gallery in Founders Hall and fine arts galleries at the Institute for Peace & Justice, University of San Diego, Alcala Way, San Diego

Admission: Free

Info: (619) 260-4171