LYLE PERRY LUND

Lyle was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, and raised in San Francisco, California.  As a young man, he worked in real estate.  He married Alverus Clark in 1939, and in the early 1940’s, they owned and operated a farm in Brentwood, California.  Lyle’s work on the farm was considered vital to national interest and as a result he did not go into the armed services during World War II.

After the war, Lyle moved with his wife and three daughters Karen, Sandra and Marie, to Lafayette, California, where he resumed his real estate business.  Due to economic hardships during the Depression, Lyle had not completed college.

At the age of 39, he enrolled at University of California, Berkeley, for his undergraduate education and majored in art. While at UC Berkeley he studied with Erle Loran, Felix Ruvolo and Karl Kasten among others; he and Karl became friends.  Lyle graduated from UC Berkeley with Honors in Art on June 5th, 1957.  After graduation he traveled to Provincetown, MA to study with Hans Hofmann.

The family has two letters from Hans Hofmann to Lyle and his wife, Alverus, the transcriptions of which are pasted below.  Lyle created numerous works of which the family has 32 oils, 4 pastels, 3 watercolors and several sculptures in marble.

Lyle passed away on December 10, 1961 from a fatal heart attack at the age of 47.  His work remains with his family in Walnut Creek, California and in Southern California.

Oktober 15, 57

Dear Lyle—Thanks for cheque and thanks for your offer- but is this not to much . . . I would love to have your work—it is a beautiful piece and would be at any time to your disposition whenever you claim it.  But think it over twice before you give it away.  You may need it as a moral stabilizer in the future.

Give my love to California and receive the same from us both.

Yours,
HH

June 29. 62

Dear Mrs. Lund – I am deeply sorry to hear from the passing away of your husband Lyle.  I can almost not believe it—he seemed so vigorous, so healthy and strong and full of life.  He loved life and his work and he was such a promising artist—such promises of a very great artist.  I still have the sculpture he gave me—it is in our living room and I often see it and touch it.  I am pleased to lend it to you for the one man memorial show in case you think it good to have it in the show.  It is a beautiful piece but pretty heavy.  I am afraid this working with so heavy material was of no good to his health.  His early dead is a great loose of a magnificent creativity.

I am in grief with you.

Yours,
Hans Hofmann