MARILYN HOULBERG Obituary

Marilyn Jensen Houlberg, professor, photographer, author, artist, art historian, and anthropologist who died June 29, 2012 was the cherished daughter of the late Carl and Magna Jensen of Chicago. Marilyn, born July 17, 1939, is survived by her daughters, Magda and Mia, their father and her former husband, Klindt Houlberg; grandson, Jamie Houlberg; sister, Joanne and her husband, Carl Finstrom; and brother, Carl William Jensen, as well as numerous nieces, nephews and cousins and their families. Marilyn is also survived by her very special friend, John Yancey and the Yancey family. Marilyn attended Chicago public schools followed by further education at Northwestern University, receiving degrees from the University of Chicago, and in Great Britain from University College London. She was Professor Emerita from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, having taught there for over 20 years. A dedicated and beloved teacher, she brought boundless energy and an electric magic to her students and inspired countless lives and careers. A prolific scholar and writer, Mambo Marilyn wrote many professional journal articles on Nigerian and Haitian art, photographing on location their respective arts and cultural rites with such skill the photos now reside in the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Elisofon Photographic Archives, Washington, DC. She also authored books on those subjects, including her most recent publication, "Water Spirits of Haitian Vodou: Lasiren, Queen of Mermaids" in Mami-Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and the African Atlantic World, edited by Henry Drewel. Marilyn was curator of many exhibits such as the Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou, co-curated with Donald Cosentino, shown in LA, Miami, Chicago, New York, Washington, DC and New Orleans, In Extremis: Death and Life in 21st-Century Haitian Art at the UCLA Fowler Museum, and the retrospective on Derek Webster's sculptures and paintings, Vibrant Spirits: The Art of Derek Webster at Intuit in Chicago. She has contributed Haitian art objects to various museums in the United States. Marilyn's Elvis Presley installation in her Chicago home has been viewed by thousands and frequently written about in the press. In 1994, she curated The All-Elvis Hunks Hunka Bernin' Love Show at TabulaRasa Gallery. She was a most talented and knowledgeable artist discovering and encouraging new artists in the United States and in her beloved Haiti. Marilyn will be greatly missed by her loving family, her many dear and close friends as well as by her students and professional colleagues. A celebration of Marilyn's remarkable life will be held in July 2013 in Chicago.

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by Chicago Tribune on Nov. 1, 2012.

Memories and Condolences
for MARILYN HOULBERG

11 Entries

Caroline Walker

January 2, 2013

Marilyn was a mentor to me as a graduate student, and a good friend who shared a rare and important viewpoint on the arts of the African diaspora. I will truly miss her.

LaShawnda Crowe Storm

December 12, 2012

Wow! :( Say it isn't so. I was thinking and speaking of her of the other day and decided to check in after not speaking to her for months. Deeply, deeply saddened. Haiti has lost a champion and the art world a great thinker.

Gwen Fagan

November 30, 2012

Marilyn was one of my favorite teachers at SAIC. She inspired and challenged us - made us think. I remember her as energetic and passionate, inquisitive and mischievous. She was great. A deep loss.

Patricia Hickling

November 15, 2012

Marilyn's work was an adventure in the visual expression of culture, thought and spiritual connection. She will always be remembered for her vibrant personality and missed by the Chicago academic community.

Kathleen Berzock

November 14, 2012

Marilyn was a Chicago institution. She mentored and inspired not only students, artists, and scholars, but also people from diverse walks of life who crossed her path. She was creative, generous with her time and thoughts, kind, and fun. She is very much missed in this city where she made her home.

Kate Ezra

November 6, 2012

Marilyn was an inspiration to so many of us in the field of African art. She was extraordinarily kind and generous to several generations of scholars and students. Marilyn merged life and art like nobody else, and will be greatly missed.

Ramona Austin

November 4, 2012

Marilyn was a great scholar and a rare personality. She was truly an ethereal being who was at home with people and personalities that most of us would overlook. She was the essence of creativity and knew it when she saw it. Always on the cutting edge, she had an intellect to which most ordinary beings can only aspire. She was a great friend and she contributed much in her life. What more can one ask from a life? We loved and love her and will cherish what she gave us.

Allen F. Roberts

November 2, 2012

Marilyn was my one and only professor of African Art History when she offered a course at the University of Chicago in the early 1970s. The class was mesmerizing, and my interests took a more explicit turn toward the arts than I could have anticipated. Marilyn was a dear friend as well as an intellectual inspiration (who lived Georges Bataille's dictum to great glory, that people "need the strange"), and Polly and I miss her greatly.

Grey Gundaker

November 1, 2012

She was a role model for me from afar, a wonderful scholar whose work i will pass along to my students and they will, I'm sure pass to theirs. And who would want a role model without a terrific sense of humor?

November 1, 2012

One of a kind. A mystic and regular person in one.

Robin Poynor

November 1, 2012

Marilyn was one-of-a-kind! I first met her in 1970 when she and I were invited to give presentations on Yoruba art at Purdue University. She had recently returned from the field and I was just preparing to go. Her enthusiasm was contagious! And her and dynamic personalty made it easy to interact with her. Her sense of humor has always shone. She has been a remarkably energetic force in the study of African and diaspora art over all these decades! We will miss her.

Showing 1 - 11 of 11 results