22 Dec Announcement about Mira Lehr (1934-2023)
A sad news about Mira Lehr (1934-2023)
It is with heavy hearts and deep sadness that we share the news that our beloved friend Mira Lehr passed away this morning, January 24th. Our heartfelt thoughts are with her children, grandchildren and her entire family. She was an art pioneer, celebrated as “The Godmother of Miami’s Art Scene.” Her life, legacy, and groundbreaking artwork will continue to inspire us.
Lehr’s solo and group exhibitions number more than 300. Three of her works were recently acquired by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. A graduate of Vassar College in 1956, she is the subject of a 420-page monograph by Skira Editore. Lehr is recognized as “the Godmother of Miami’s art scene” because in 1961 she co-founded one of the country’s first co-ops for women artists, Continuum.
Her work has been collected by major institutions, including: the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York; the Smithsonian Museum of American Art (DC); Getty Museum Research Center (L.A.); Boca Raton Museum of Art; Perez Art Museum Miami; Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center (NY); Margulies Collection; Mennello Museum of American Art; MOCA North Miami; Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum-FIU; Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU; and Orlando Museum of Art, among others.
Lehr’s work is included in the Leonard Lauder Corporate Collection NY, and in the private collections of Elie and Marion Wiesel, Jane and Morley Safer, and Judy Pfaff, among others. Thirty of her paintings were commissioned for Mount Sinai Hospital Miami Beach. Her work is in American Embassies around the world, and is permanently on view in the Sloan Kettering Memorial Center, NY and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU.
In the 1950s, Lehr studied and worked in New York where she met some of America’s most prominent masters, including Joan Mitchell, Lee Krasner, and Helen Frankenthaler. She was selected in 1969 by Buckminster Fuller as one of only two artists for his World Game Project on sustainability (preceding the first Earth Day). Lehr’s installation, V1 V3, was exhibited at the New Museum in New York.
