The Estate of Mil Lubroth

Mil Lubroth, a great but overlooked American woman artist, whose career was primarily based in Madrid. While her name may not yet carry as much of a known legacy as her contemporaries, Lubroth was very much a part of the Spanish and American mid-century avant-garde, having attended Black Mountain during its zenith, when the school attracted the likes of Bauhaus and Abstract Expressionist masters Joseph and Anni Albers, Elaine and Willem de Kooning, Dorothea Rockburne, Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly, and Ruth Asawa, among others. In Madrid, Lubroth was as known for her elusive style as for her lively open studio days and dinner parties, which were widely attended by the creative elite from Buckminster Fuller to her studio neighbor Pablo Serrano. Lubroth has exhibited and has artworks in collections internationally, to include the Reina Sofia in Madrid and the Smithsonian in Washington, DC to Asia Art Gallery in Hong Kong.

Through Lubroth’s practice, artwork, and biography, viewers learn about a specific time and place in Spanish history as told through the unique lens of an expatriate. Lubroth shows us her Spain; Spain as her muse, with her deep veneration for the diverse architectural influences of Madrid. In learning about her life, we regard an artistic network steeped in cross-cultural exchange. And we see a woman who was somehow able to defy all imposed boundaries from her artistic style and acceptance as an immigrant to her accomplishments as a single mother and working artist.

Biography:
Mil Lubroth (1926-2004) was an American born artist who until her passing lived and worked in Madrid, Spain. Her colorful, semi-abstract paintings, which often combined Jewish, Arab and Christian symbolism, were described as “light and music, subtlety and suggestion, full of energy and joy” by Catherine Coleman, curator at the Reina Sofia Museum. Her annual open studio, held every November, was an important celebration of the Spanish art scene.Born Mildred Schleifer, Lubroth studied at Brooklyn College (1944); Tyler School of Fine Arts (1945), Philadelphia; the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, where she received her BA (1947); Black Mountain College, North Carolina (1948); the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago (1950); Academie für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna, where she was a Fulbright Scholar (1951); and the Humanities Institute, Nüremberg, Germany (1072). She was an invited fellow at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Sweet Briar (1978-9), Clemson University, South Carolina (1982), and the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC (1984).Lubroth was influenced by the whimsical work of Paul Klee as well as by Robert Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly. She lived in Paris before moving with her husband to Madrid, where she raised her four children. The richly layered culture of Spain inspired her to weave together Jewish, Islamic and Western influences in her decorative and often mysterious work. Lubroth was the first North American Woman to exhibit at Madrid’s Cultural Center, and her work has been exhibited by institutions worldwide including solo shows at Lorca Gallery, Madrid; Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos, La Rabida, Sevilla; Casino Estoril, Portugal; Atalaya Palace, Madrid; Gloria Luria Gallery, Miami; Galeria de São Francisco, Lisbon; Susquehanna Gallery, Amsterdam; Asia Art Gallery, Hong Kong; Carminel Gallery, New York; and Alianza Francesca de Polanco, Mexico, among others. Lubroth’s work resides in public and private collections in Barcelona, Madrid, and Castellon, Spain, as well as Des Moines, IA; New York, NY; Washington, DC; Verona, Italy; Sydney, Australia; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; and Skopje, Yugoslavia, and more.

“Mil Lubroth was an American artist of Polish and Russian descent who came to settle in Madrid, where her chic, short name took on an extra meaning. In castellano, Mil means a thousand. Just right for an artist whose work could never be "pinned down," or categorized by any one theme or direction.” - Ysabel de la Rosa

“From the sixties, [Lubroth’s] long residence in Spain influenced and enriched her work with rich and warm materials, and a heightened awareness of color, both of which characteristics were not far from the influences of Spanish informalism. Her work became more intimate and secret, it reflected a delicate lyricism and a veiled significance more or less symbolic, which evoked the religious art of the ancient Mediterranean and Judaic styles.” -Antonio Bonet Correa