Matt Lamb
1932–2012 · American painter, creator of the 'Lamb Umbrellas for Peace' and religious frescoes
Matt Lamb (Chicago, 1932 - Chicago, 2012) was an American painter who, after a long career running funeral businesses, devoted the second half of his life to painting with a message of peace, tolerance and love. He is mainly known for symbolic, collective projects.
The son of a funeral director, Lamb became a partner in the family business at eighteen and expanded it into a chain of funeral homes. He left the business in 1986 and opened his first painting studio in Chicago, followed by studios in Florida, Wisconsin, Germany and Paris.
In 2001, responding to the September 11 attacks, he created "The Lamb Umbrellas for Peace": a three-day workshop in Washington, D.C. with 38 children who had lost their parents, each of whom expressed their feelings on an umbrella. The project was shown on Capitol Hill and, from 2003, in the European Parliament, the German Bundestag and the British Parliament. His largest work is the fresco "Mary, Queen of Peace" in the chapel of St. Martin's parish church in Tünsdorf, Germany, covering 120 square metres and listed in the Michelin Guide.
Lamb died in Chicago in 2012, aged 79, of pulmonary fibrosis. His legacy rests mainly on the umbrella project and the Tünsdorf chapel.