Marta Adams (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Marta Arnstem; 1891 – 1978) was a German-born sculptor and painter, who lived in Boston and Mexico City. She was known for her animal and floral themed artwork. She is also known as Martha Adams.

Biography

Marta Arnstem was born in 6 November 1891, in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

, Germany. Her mother Baronin Erna von Armin was Spanish, and her father Erick H. Arnstem was Swedish and worked as a diplomat. She had immigrated to Massachusetts in the United States around 1915. In 1916, she married, Edward Brinley Adams in Boston. Her spouse was a

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

law librarian, and he died of a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

in 1922. In the winter of 1925, Adams apprenticed with sculptor Hans Stangl in Munich. She remained in Munich until 1933, and socialized with

Otto Nückel Otto Nückel (Cologne, 6 September 1888 – Cologne, 12 November 1955) was a German painter, graphic designer, illustrator and cartoonist. He is best known as one of the 20th century's pioneer wordless novelists, along with Frans Masereel and Ly ...

, and

Karl Zerbe Karl Zerbe (September 16, 1903 – November 24, 1972) was a German-born American painter and educator. Biography Zerbe was born on September 16, 1903, in Berlin, Germany. The family lived in Paris, France, from 1904 to 1914, where his fath ...

. In 1935, she visited Mexico for the first time. She met with

Diego Rivera Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957) was a Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the Mexican muralism, mural movement in Mexican art, Mexican and international art. Between 1922 and 1953, Rivera painted mural ...

in 1937, who encouraged her

oil painting Oil painting is a painting method involving the procedure of painting with pigments combined with a drying oil as the Binder (material), binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on canvas, wood panel, or oil on coppe ...

. Adams moved to Mexico City in 1952. Her later work was influenced by

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

art. She made

Archaic Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archai ...

-style sculptured busts and portraits. Adams died on 27 November 1978, in Mexico City. Her work can be found in museum collections, including at the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...

Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende The Museum of Solidarity Salvador Allende (Spanish: ''Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende'') is a contemporary art museum located in Santiago, Chile, named after Salvador Allende, president of Chile between 1970 and 1973. History Museum of ...

(MSSA) in Santiago, Chile, and

Harvard Art Museums The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

Exhibitions

* 1933, group exhibition, Günther Galerie, Munich, Germany * 1934, group exhibition, Germanic Museum, Harvard University,

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, Massachusetts * 1937, sculptures and drawings, solo exhibition, Grace Horne Galleries, 71

Newbury Street Newbury Street is located in the Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts, Back Bay area of Boston, Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. It runs roughly east–west, from the Public Garden (Boston, Massachusetts), Boston Public ...

, Boston, Massachusetts * 1945, sculptures, solo exhibition,

Boris Mirski Gallery The Boris Mirski Gallery (1944–1979) was a Boston art gallery owned by Boris Chaim Mirski (1898–1974). The gallery was known for exhibiting key figures in Boston Expressionism, New York and international modern art styles and non-western a ...

, 166 Newbury Street, Boston, Massachusetts * 1950, paintings, solo exhibition, Boris Mirski Gallery, 166 Newbury Street, Boston, Massachusetts * 1953,

Boston Arts Festival The Boston Arts Festival is an annual event showcasing Boston's visual and performing arts community and promoting Boston's Open Studios program. The weekend-long Festival at Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park features a wide variety of arts and ...

, group exhibition, Public Garden, Boston, Massachusetts * 1962, group exhibition,

Palacio de Bellas Artes The Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts) is a prominent cultural center in Mexico City. It hosts performing arts events, literature events and plastic arts galleries and exhibitions (including important permanent Mexican murals). "Bella ...

, Mexico City, Mexico * 1963, ''Pintura Contemporânea do México'', group exhibition, ,

Porto Alegre Porto Alegre (, ; , ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian Federative units of Brazil, state of Rio Grande do Sul. Its population of roughly 1.4 million inhabitants (2022) makes it the List of largest cities in Brazil, 11th-most p ...

, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil; organized by Intercâmbio de Arte e Cultura Brasil–México, and Museu de Arte do Rio Grande do Sul (MARGS; now Museu de Arte do Rio Grande do Sul Ado Malagoli) * 1978–1980, ''Marta Adams: Exposición Homenaje, 1891–1978'', traveling exhibition organized by Fondo nacional para las actividades sociales (FONAPAS)

References

External links

Marta Adams Papers
from

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washing ...

Photograph of Marta Adams at dinner event with Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Raul Anguiano, Frances Toor, Alfredo Zalce, José Clemente Orozco, and others, 194-?
from

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Marta 1891 births 1978 deaths 20th-century American artists 20th-century American women sculptors 20th-century German artists 20th-century German women artists American women painters American women sculptors Artists from Boston Artists from Düsseldorf Artists from Mexico City German emigrants to Mexico German emigrants to the United States German people of Spanish descent German people of Swedish descent German women painters German women sculptors 20th-century American women painters