Louis Paul Lubbering Jr. (1944-2020)

Louis was one of San Antonio’s most beloved, eclectic and prolific artists experimenting and teaching throughout his life in mediums including sculpture, watercolor, photography, painting, lithography, printmaking and charcoal. He was “Mr. Lube” to thousands of students, fellow artists, family, friends and colleagues whom he encouraged to spell Art F-U-N.

His subject matter was equally varied and diverse including figurative works, landscapes, images from his service in Vietnam and religious and spiritually themed images. He embraced and was influenced by the whole alphabet of artists including Andy Warhol, Bob Ross, Sister Corita Kent and Jackson Pollack. He sought to view obscure art collections like Sister Corita Kent’s archive housed at Immaculate Heart High School’s all girl’s Catholic School in Los Angeles.

However, Mr. Lube’s favorite past time was collecting paintings and other “objects d’ art” from thrift shops, flea markets, garage sales and estate sales that most of the art world would not consider. He saw the beauty in the things others found common. He often used to say “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” He really liked the show “Antiques Road Show” and also liked watching Sister Wendy Beckett who became a BBC star teaching art history.

Not unlike himself, he also greatly admired Shepard Fairey's use of varied mediums such as silk screen, stencils and spray paint and he laughed at the antics of Shepard’s contemporary Banksy. He encouraged and admired the next generation of artists staying informed by watching documentaries on them including “Exit through the Gift Shop.” He visited Bushwick in Brooklyn to see the rise of these “graffiti” artists.

He also was awed by another NYC graffiti artist whose work he was exposed to at the Brooklyn Museum whose real name was Jean-Michel Basquiat but he originally tagged himself SAMO. Later Mr. Lube was able to enjoy Basquiat’s large scale paintings acquired by the Broad Museum.

He was excited by the rise in popularity of Betye Saar’s art seeing examples of it at the Hammer Museum and the Getty and greatly admired Kathe Kollwitz especially after seeing her show at the Getty in Los Angeles as well. He embraced these female role models in the arts and passed information about accomplished female artists to his students.

He admired Annie Leibovitz and collected her books and magazines featuring her photographs and he in turn shared these with his photography students. He liked visiting the Annenberg Space for Photography and attended the Vanity Fair show there because he liked flipping through magazines Leibovitz was featured in as well as other celebrity photographers.

Mr. Lube, nicknamed so by generations of students and colleagues, was a San Antonio native and an institution in his own right having graduated with art degrees from San Antonio College, Trinity University, and UTSA as well as teaching in the Incarnate Word system for the last forty years as of 2020. One could say he won the art grand slam but in San Antonio academia.

Born a twin war baby in 1944 along with his brother Leonard in San Antonio, TX, Mr. Lube was given encouragement from his beloved father, Louis Lubbering Sr., a WWII Veteran and San Antonio building contractor and his mother Caroline Lubbering, owner of the Lad-n-Lassie Day Care Centers/Kindergartens whose curriculums included art.

Louis Jr. was a third and fourth generation Texan. Louis’ mother Caroline was taught “Kindergarten Methods” at San Antonio College both in 1958 and 1973. Friedrich Froebel, the inventor of Kindergartens in Germany, influenced Mr. Lube and other artists like Frank Lloyd Wright and his son who invented Lincoln Logs. The Froebel’s in San Antonio went to St. Joseph Parish along with Louis’ ancestors beginning in the late 1800’s. Friedrich Froebel thought learning should be fun and generations later Mr. Lube also fervently promoted that concept too. Mr. Lube’s Aunt and Uncle, Evelyn and Guy Linton inspired him to experiment and paint as Louis evidenced a natural ability to depict his life experiences in artistic medium. Uncle Guy was also a gifted painter and turned their nightclub into an art gallery in downtown San Antonio selling paintings to locals and visitors. The gallery was located next to the Greyhound Bus Station in downtown San Antonio and Evelyn and Guy often bought food for the homeless people around the bus station. They passed these concepts of community service on to Louis.

Louis graduated from Thomas Edison High School in San Antonio in 1962 where he pin-striped hot-rods in exchange for maintenance of his own cherished hot-rod. One of his favorite Museums was the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles where he was inspired viewing exhibits such as the lowrider exhibit "The High Art of Riding Low.” He absorbed design concepts from the cars at the Petersen for students interested in design for the real world.

Louis was on the high school newspaper and yearbook staff working as a cartoonist and illustrator. Upon graduation, he began work as a commercial artist and a student at San Antonio College where he learned design from mentor/instructor Mel Casas.

Louis served in the United States Army beginning in 1965. He went to Vietnam in the spring of 1966 and was in the 61st Battalion, 32nd Med- Dep Nha Trang for 7 months then moved to Cam Rahn Bay until May of 1967. While on leave in Vietnam, Mr. Lube made artistic pilgrimages to the National Gallery in Japan and other galleries and museums which would later influence him to paint images in black ink on various white/off white styled papers called Sumi-e (pronounced Su-mee -Aye) and also create Hanga (wooden prints). Sumi is the traditional Japanese black ink used in Japanese calligraphy and painting. However Japanese the materials, the subject matter instead depicted Louis’ inner reflections of life post- Vietnam America. Mr. Lube had ongoing PTSD from his Vietnam experiences and some of his art work reflected his inner demons. These images have never been put on public display because the collection was part of his personal art therapy with Dr. Wally Hedges, a WWII Veteran and the founder of the psychology department at Incarnate Word College.

Upon returning from Vietnam, Louis entered Trinity University on national defense loans and married Marilyn Schmoekel, who became the primary subject matter for many of his figurative works. At Trinity University Louis learned how to draw from life with the help and guidance of Trinity professor Jim Stoker. Louis was a mentor to fellow students at Trinity University like Linda Pace, who was inspired to continue her artistic endeavors even when she wanted to quit. She cited Louis as a primary inspiration and Louis became a teaching assistant at Trinity University.

Jim’s wife, Chairperson of the Art Department at the University of the Incarnate Word, Eloise Yantis Stoker and Louis worked together at UIW teaching all the various art classes. The Stoker’s and Louis were contemporaries and friends who encouraged, informed and supported each other. Louis received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Trinity University in May of 1970 and entered graduate school as a teaching assistant at New Mexico Highlands University, Las Vegas, New Mexico with three young children aged two, one and newborn along with a wife in tow. He received his Master of Arts Degree in the summer of 1971 and was voted into the National Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. While in New Mexico, Louis’ two greatest influences were his mentor and graduate school supervisor Elmer W. (Skinny) Schooley and artistic legend Georgia O’Keeffe who was a celebrated living artist in Santa Fe during the time Louis studied in New Mexico.

In the fall of 1971 he began working as a full-time faculty member in the art department of Northeast Louisiana University, Monroe Louisiana. He was employed there until he entered the MFA program at the University of Texas at San Antonio in the fall of 1976.

Having served with many people from various ethnic groups in Vietnam, Louis was an outspoken early advocate of diversity especially in academia and particularly in the arts. While at UTSA, Louis was heavily influenced by teacher and mentor Felipe Reyes, “a master colorist” according to Louis.

Upon graduating from UTSA, Louis opened his gallery on the San Antonio Riverwalk called Lube’s Art Studio from 1978 To 1990. Many international visitors to conventions on the Riverwalk and visiting Air Force personnel taking weekend leave collected Louis Lubbering art, which was shipped around the world. Lube’s Art Studio also represented artists other than himself and he invited various local artists of different ethnicities and ages to show their art in front of his studio on weekends.

Louis began teaching at Incarnate Word College in 1982 and taught art history and studio until 1990. He transferred to Incarnate Word High School in the fall of 1989. Occasionally, Mr. Lube taught adult education classes at the University of the Incarnate Word, Texas Lutheran University and USAA. Hundreds of students have learned to appreciate art from Mr. Lube and he taught classes such as “Art for the Terrified Beginner” to students who required art credits to graduate.

While Louis wasn’t teaching, on break he took art pilgrimages to New York City, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and New Mexico to see retrospectives of his favorite artists such as the Van Gogh retrospective at LACMA, and the “Royal Collection” Leonardo da Vinci’s show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. He liked zipping up and down Museum Mile in NYC.

Since he loved German Expressionism so much and painted in that manner often, the Neue Galerie was one of his favorite pit stops. In between going into museums in NYC, Mr. Lube would waltz around Central Park and lay down on the grass admiring the fact that it was man made. He did the same at Prospect Park in Brooklyn looking for Revolutionary War plaques and monuments as he walked along.

Mr. Lube was on a teacher’s salary so saving to travel to these museums and provide art materials to his students was a challenge every year. He usually got to various cities with a little help from his daughter Julie and her husband Jesse who lived and/or worked in these cities. Julie and Jesse and Louis loved photography and on their jaunts a camera was always like an appendage for each of them. Louis taught photography both old school and new having a traditional photo lab at IWHS and an HP All-in-One for scanning and printing photos donated to the classroom by his daughter Julie. He was also sponsored by collectors of his art such as the Leighton Family, the Pauker Family and the King Ranch Family in Texas.

He also liked going to smaller museums as well like the Rubin Museum in NYC and the Brooklyn Museum of Art where he always enjoyed learning something new from Judy Chicago’s “The Dinner Party.” The Norton Simon in Pasadena, CA was a small museum he could study up close to a Rembrandt. He liked meditating at the Noguchi Museum in Queens and made a pilgrimage to see the Unicorn Tapestries at the Cloisters in NYC.

He loved the Whitney Biennial exposing himself, thus his art students, to new concepts in art.

He liked studying the Rembrandts at the Getty in LA too and the El Greco’s at the National Gallery in D.C. His last art pilgrimage was to Los Angeles which included a trip to the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. While in the English Tea Room at the Huntington, Louis was very happy they sat him next to a window one could see an orange tree filled with its fruit. Small details around him inspired his painting.

On each of his art research trips he would accumulate free brochures, books, posters, take pictures and look for inspiration to be used in the classroom. The students were always excited by the materials Mr. Lube brought back from his adventures. He was always thinking of his students and how to be a better teacher and mentor.

For instance, Mr. Lube tried to visit the Gene Autry Museum as much as possible because of the extensive number of books available by Native American Artists. He also did this at the Native American Museum in lower Manhattan. Going to graduate school in New Mexico, he was continually inspired spiritually and mentally by Native American culture. He always instilled in his children and students a love of the natural world he lovingly depicted in his art work.

In the 2005 “Best of” issue of the San Antonio Current Louis was named one of three best San Antonio Art teachers along with his eldest son Paul Lubbering. His son Karl Lubbering was also mentioned in the same issue as part of “the Lubbering Art Dynasty” since he is a prolific painter himself. Louis’ other daughter Sarah was also self taught at a young age and became a professional tattoo artist who later sought a traditional higher education like her father and mother. She and her father were “thick as thieves” he would say keeping each other informed on what inspired and moved each other. These insights from his youngest child helped him mentor his female students at IWHS.

Louis won the annual San Antonio Art League “Julian Onderdonk Award” in 1987. He was an ongoing member of the Marion McNay Museum having shared a love of New Mexico with Marion whose drawings of New Mexico inspired him greatly. Louis was also friends with Amy Freeman Lee who was a personal friend of Marion McNay. She became a mentor to Louis. Louis exhibited in over fifty national juried art competitions throughout the United States and has shown his work in roughly twenty art shows nationally and abroad. Mr. Lube often took his art classes on field trips to draw and paint on the grounds of the McNay.

Sadly, on July 17th, 2020 after a two week quarantine he lost his battle with Covid-19 and died that morning after receiving his last rites the evening before. On the night following his death, Incarnate Word High School lit up their Christmas lights, set up a memorial table and large poster of their most cherished art teacher and hundreds of cars drove by to say their farewell to their beloved Mr. Lube. He is interred at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, TX. Two local news stations KENS 5 and News 4 in San Antonio covered the story.

His family also included his co-workers and students at IWHS. One commonality after he died was the outpouring of love from everyone to the immediate family and each person told them Mr. Lube was their friend, mentor and esteemed colleague. He was always giving his fellow co- workers little knick knacks he bought on weekends or a painting he had done in the classroom just to brighten someone’s day. He also collected art books to study, share or gift.

He mentored hundreds of young ladies at IWHS and won the TAPPs Fine Art Competition Teacher of the Year for Texas one year and his students won first prizes in many categories of art at TAPPs every year throughout his career at IWHS. He also taught the students how to organize their portfolios for admissions to various institutes of higher learning and some of his students became art teachers themselves.

With the help of his daughter who created and manages his Facebook account, Mr. Lube, under the name Louis P. Lubbering, has over 800 former students, friends and colleagues on his Facebook page. The family now posts Louis P. Lubbering art on Louis’ Facebook. The family also created “Lubbering Family Art” a group on Facebook in the works which includes examples of Louis. P. Lubbering art from his 50 Year Retrospective showcased at the “Green House” at The Cove. This event was sponsored by the Asvestes Family and Herweck’s Art Supply in 2010. At the time of his death, the family was about to start curating his personal collection under his guidance to give Louis a 60 year retrospective since the family had extraordinary examples of his art from childhood.