Yesterday’s Papers: Arthur H. Lindberg

Saturday, September 14, 2019

Western Illustrations of Arthur H. Lindberg

Arthur Harold Lindberg

1895 Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, the son of an immigrant Swedish Metal Worker.

1909 At 14 years old, worked his first job at the Goddard works of the Wickwire-Spencer Company, Worcester. (Worked 54 hours a week at 10 cents an hour)

1915 Graduated from high school at the age of 20, took art classes at the Worcester Art Museum School, then studied at the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn.

1917 During his senior year at Pratt, enlisted in the US Air Force and served 14 months in France as a Sergeant-Major during World War I.

1919-22 After the war, returned to Worcester, worked at Wickwire-Spencer and resumed evening art classes at the Worcester Museum School, and then moved to New York City.

1922-30 Studied nights at the Grand Central School of Art, and the Art Students League of NY, where he was awarded a life membership for his superior work. Studied under Harvey Dunn, Dean Cornwell, Frank Vincent Dummond and George Bridgeman. Worked as a commercial artist. Became friends with Girard Delano and a student of Walter Beck, who advised him in making his own pastels.

1927 Married Esther Perry Barlow, who learned to paint under his tutelage and became and accomplished watercolorist and was also an award winning quilter. They moved to Long Island, NY, the new headquarters of Wickwire-Spencer.

1928-29 Illustrated Western Magazines – now referred to as pulps

1931 Daughter, Perryann born

1933-37 instructor & Registrar at Nassau Institute of Art

1937-38 Did illustrations for Gulf Oil Company weekly cartoon strip about the Mayan Indians.

1939 Received BFA at the Pratt institute

1941 Received BE in Art at the Pratt Institute, and moved to Buffalo, NY. Took Art Instructors position at Kenmore Senior High School.

1942-43 Worked steel production in the summer in Western NY factories doing war production.

1944-45 Taught private art classes, did illuminated scrolls, started doing art restoration of paintings.

1946 Summer study, received MA at Columbia University

1946-48 Obtained permission from the City of Buffalo to enter industrial site (previously restricted due to defense work) and executed a series of fifty paintings. He found beauty and color even in the blast furnaces of Bethlehem Steel.

1947 One man show at Carl Bredemier Gallery, Buffalo, “Our Industrial Waterfront”. Received Frontiersman Award from Buffalo Business Magazine for the time and effort he had given to the presentation of Buffalo Industrial scenes in oil paintings.

During the mind 1940’s was voted into the Buffalo Society of Artists by its members. Exhibited in the society’s membership shows and served as its president in 1954 and 1955.

Arthur H. Lindberg devoted his retirement years to art, private art classes, illuminated scrolls, cleaning and restoration of paintings, commissioned portraits and Fall painting trips to New England. Increasingly frustrated and disillusioned by emphasis on and the support of abstract art in the Buffalo Art Community, he refused to exhibit his work for fear of being misunderstood and rejected for continuing as a realist in such pro-abstract surroundings.

He was commissioned to do illuminated scrolls for many groups and people in the Buffalo area. He was especially proud of the scroll which was presented in 1955 to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth of England.

Art was active with the Buffalo Society of Artists and was president for a couple of years. He sketched with Art Kowalski, Bill Ludecke and Walter Prochoniak.

Art painted in oil, watercolors and pastel. He loved to include water in his paintings and was drawn to the shipyards in New England, as well as the waterfront in Buffalo. Another series of his paintings represented the area around Stowe, VT with its’ brilliant fall color.

1953 Did independent study in Sweden and Denmark, and was included in Who’s Who of American Artists.

1977 Died in Kenmore, NY.

1980 Retrospective show at AAO Gallery, Buffalo, NY.

1982 One man show, “Beauty in Buffalo Industry”, held at the International Institute, Buffalo.

1984 Included in exhibit “Buffalo Waterfront”, at the Charles Burchfield Center, State University College at buffalo, Buffalo, NY.

1987 Included in exhibit and catalogue “The Wayward Muse: A Historical Survey of Paintings in Buffalo”, The Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY.

1987-88 One man show of industrial paintings of Buffalo’s waterfront, Linda Hyman Gallery, NY City, NY.

1988 Retrospective exhibit of drawings, watercolors, pastels, lithographs and oil from 1916 to the late 1960’s, at Art Dialogue Gallery, Buffalo, New York.

2009 Six of Arthur H. Lindberg’s pieces are in the Burchfield Penney Collection, Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, NY and one piece is in the permanent collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY.

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[24] Mimi and Papa

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[26] Shields & Co. Mural

[27] Courtyard Art Show

[28] Richard Nixon Scroll

[29] Arthur H. Lindberg Article Pg. 1

[30] Restoration Before and After

Cartoonist Arthur H. Lindberg (“Lyndell”) and Gulf Funny Weekly

HERE

Arthur H. Lindberg’s Gulf Funny Weekly comics and artwork

have been donated to Ohio State University

Special thanks to Pam H.

⚪

Sunday, April 14, 2019

Cartoonist Arthur H. Lindberg (“Lyndell”) and Gulf Funny Weekly –

🙶 Wings Winfair, Speed Spaulding and
This Wonderful World

🙶 It’s my favorite picture. He made those pastels, the colors were amazing. As a kid I wanted to play with those pastels, but couldn't ...🙷 – Pam, Lyndell's granddaughter

[1] Mar 26, 1937

The earliest comic book to see the light of day was The Funnies (subtitle: “Flying – Sports – Adventure”), a dime weekly which carried original art and stories rather than newspaper comic reprints. Printing was done by Eastern Color. It ran from January 16, 1929, to October 16, 1930, a total of 36 issues. Each issue had 16 pages of four color material printed on newsprint.

Three years later Eastern Color’s sales manager Harry I. Wildenberg approached the Gulf Refining Company to produce a weekly giveaway, titled Gulf Comic Weekly. The Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries gives the date of the first issue as April 28, 1933. The title changed to Gulf Funny Weekly with No. 5, May 26, 1933. The premium comic was produced until May 23, 1941, ending at 422 issues.

Previously I noted that the lead serial ‘WINGS WINFAIR’ was originally credited to Stan Schendel (writer) and the unknown artist Lyndell. Recently the granddaughter of ‘Lyndell’ wrote me identifying the unknown artist as Arthur H. Lindberg, well known in his time as a fine artist. He was born September 29, 1895 and passed away on July 23, 1977. Pam H. writes “My older sister is cleaning out her house to sell. It used to be my grandparents house and has been in the family since 1941. Last night she brought over many portfolios of my grandfather's works... and in it are his cartoons he did as Lyndell.”

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One other piece of comic art was saved — a Sunday SPEED SPAULDING strip. Speed Spaulding was a curious strip based on the book When Worlds Collide, by Edwin Balmer and Philip Wylie, drawn mostly by Marvin Bradley, who would go on to work on Rex Morgan, M.D. The strip was distributed by John F. Dille Co., Chicago and would run under several different artists in the Famous Funnies comic book in the forties. The muddled history can be explored HERE and HERE. Since Arthur H. Lindberg only saved one original example it is likely the Sunday was drawn on speculation and never saw print.