Lou Lambert, who died last weekend, was as nice as any person who ever walked this planet. Lou radiated kindness and love. When he greeted you, his heartfelt smile said it all and brought you, the lucky recipient, joy.
I was lucky enough to have Lou come into my life because he is one of the great Australian sculptors. His sculptures are stunning abstracts that often flow from the Australian landscape, especially the Pilbara in north western Australia, and are wonderfully evocative of the land he loved. Based on a deep sense of the landscape, Lou’s sculptures yielded only a hint of the actual landforms. Their strength lay in evoking the emotional state one feels in the wilds of Australia.
Lou had a great affection for Sculpture by the Sea, the public’s response to the sculptures and the opportunities the exhibition presented to the artists, with freedom of artistic expression. He thrived in the opportunity to connect with people. While he was very much a person who generated close, intimate relationships, he relished the en masse response by people to the sculptures at Cottesloe beach and on the Bondi coastal walk. Lou exhibited in Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe four times, and four times in Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi between 2005 and 2017. Twice Lou was a member of the Curatorial Panel for Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe to select the artworks for the exhibition from the many hundreds of applications received. He had to be gently coerced into the role, which he then took on with a great focus, knowing the importance of the Curatorial Panel’s decisions for individual artists and for the exhibition as a whole.
A quiet person, Lou was not one to blow his own trumpet. However, I am very happy to do so on his behalf. Career highlights for Lou included his formative years when the highly acclaimed British sculptor Phillip King (1934 – 2021) CBE PPRA, inviting Lou to be his assistant in London in the mid-1970s; major commissions in Adachi city in Japan in the early 1990s; solo exhibitions across Australia, including at Ann Lewis’ gallery in Sydney; and a Helen Lempriere Scholarship through Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi in 2012.
Lou was a gifted teacher and thrived in the community around the Western Australia Institute of Technology from the late 1970s to the early 1990s until conceptual art started to dominate. This interview with Lou, conducted by Deborah Edwards, is insightful for many reasons including the vibrant sculpture world in the 1970s and 80s; the bureaucratic challenges of public art commissions which he found restrictive; and the increasing dominance of conceptual art in the world of sculpture at art schools.
Making art was everything for Lou. As he said to Deborah Edwards, he would rather go hungry than been restricted by the bureaucrats involved with public art.
Farewell my friend, you and your smile and sculptures will be greatly missed.