biography of LUM Bertha (1869-1954)

Birth place: Tipton, IA

Death place: Genoa, Italy

Addresses: San Fran., CA, 1917-44, and NYC, 1945-48, with many extended trips to Japan and China

Profession: Block printer, painter, illustrator, etcher, writer

Studied: AIC, 1901; studied Japanese printing in Japan, 1907, working in the shop of Bonkotsu Igami (1875-1933); Frank Holme; Anna Weston.

Exhibited: Tokyo Int'l Exhib., Uyeno Park, Tokyo, 1912 (the only foreign woodcut artist and the only woman represented); Albert Roullier Gal., Chicago, 1912; Katz Gal., NY, 1912; Pan.-Pac. Expo., San Fran., 1915 (med.); LACMA, 1920; Stendahl Gal., Los Angeles, 1926; Gump's Gal., S.F., 1927-33; Inst. of Fine Arts, Peking, China, 1935

Member: Boston SAC; Calif. SE; Asiatic Soc. of Japan; Calif. Printmakers.

Work: Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Fine Arts Museums of San Fran.; AIC; Detroit Inst. Art; NYPL; LOC; Minneapolis Inst. Art; British Mus., London; California Printmakers Spc.; Honolulu Acad. of Arts, Hawaii; Univ. of Oregon Mus. A.; Freer Gal. of Art, Wash., DC.

Comments: She specialized in oriental-style color woodblock prints, mastering the "en gaufrage" technique. Visited Japan 1903, 1907, 1911-12, 1915-16, 1919; visited Peking, China, 1922-24, 1927-29, late 1929-31, 1933, 1948-53. Illustrated "Gods, Goblins and Ghosts," 1922. Signed some prints Berll Lum and some with last name spelled Lumn.

Sources: WW40; Ness & Orwig, Iowa Artists of the First Hundred Years, 133; Mary Evans O'Keefe Gravalos and Carol Pulin, Bertha Lum (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Press, 1990), has complete catalogue of all known prints and corrects her birth date from 1879 (which is the one Lum gave) to 1869.