Emilija O. K. Somberg (1924 - 2006)

 

Emilija (Milita) Somberg was an accomplished artist whose paintings have been described as "sparkling with radiant light."

 

She was born in Utena, Lithuania on February 20, 1924.

 

She studied art at the University of Vilnius in Lithuania, the University of Hamburg in Germany, and in the United States, under expressionist Hans Hofmann.  In 1958, Somberg started painting in abstract expressionism, a spontaneous painting style in which artists paint rapidly to capture their feelings and emotions.  She later adopted a geometric style and eventually returned to neo-expressionism. She received her Master's in Art from Southern Connecticut State University in 1962.      

 

She met her future husband, Herman Somberg, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where she was doing a paper on Picasso.  Herman was a professor of art at the University of Minnesota and an artist whose works were exhibited at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Landmark Center in St. Paul, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.  He died in 1991.  

 

Somberg had more than 16 one-woman shows and participated in many invitational group shows in New York and throughout the United States, including locally at the Minnesota Museum of Art, the University of Minnesota, the International Institute of Minnesota, and several private Minnesota galleries.      

 

She was a Member of the University of Minnesota Women's Club. Milita and Herman’s intimate friends included artists Franz Kline, Earl Kerkham, and Willem and Elaine de Kooning.

 

Milita passed away on November 18, 2006, at the age of 82.