Bibi (Alice) Maria Lencek

Bibi (Alice) M. Lencek, (née Jelvica Alice Maria), born on March 6, 1947, died at 6:20 am on Sunday, July 20, 2025, at her home in New York, in the arms of her beloved children, Nikko (Miško) and Katrina Lenček-Inagaki, and her sister Lena Lenček.

For twelve years, Bibi faced declining health with stunning dignity, bravery, and beauty, the lively center of our social and family life and an indefatigable mentor in the art of living without surrendering. She surrounded us with her glorious artwork and led us to live in inspiration, love, delight and gratitude.

When she was born in Gorizia, Italy, the city still bore the raw scars of the Second World War. Her parents, the distinguished scholar Rado L. Lenček and accomplished mother Nina A. Lencek, daughter of Slovene poet Joża Lovrenčič and grand-niece of the Italian Romantic novelist Alessandro Manzoni, had fled the Communist regime in Yugoslavia and were stateless. Bibi’s childhood was an apprenticeship in survival, yet graced with the beauty and dlights of the Adriatic Sea of cosmopolitan Trieste and bucolic summers in the Julian Alps.

Immigrating to the United States in 1956, Bibi quickly adjusted to the new rhythms of American life. Showing an early gift for art, she was enrolled in the children’s art program at the Chicago Art Institute. She studied painting and the fine arts at the University of Illinois (B.F.A.), as well as in Florence and in Rome, and completed her M.F.A. at Columbia University, where she studied with Alex Katz, Leon Golub, and Wayne Thiebaud. She was a two-time recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to Yugoslavia, where she painted in the studio of Krsto Hegedušić.

Bibi was a passionate advocate of the right of women to pursue the professions into which their innate talents steered them, and to do so against the grain of social conventions that discriminated between the prestige and value of men’s work and women’s work. For her, the work of painting, the work of making a beautiful home, the work of raising healthy, happy children, and the work of sustaining a vibrant partnership were all foundational to social harmony and culture, and demanded the respect, recognition, and appreciation of society.

As an artist Bibi took a dynamic role in the Feminist Women’s Art Movement in New York during the decades of the 1960s through 1980s, and exhibited her work widely. Her themes were the intimate, fugitive, domestic moments of harmony, tranquility, and love that make up everyday life. Her aesthetic tool kit of colors, images, and devices was enriched by her study of Italian Renaissance art, Croatian Expressionism, Japanese shunga, surrealism, textile arts, and photography. Represented in private and public collections internationally, her work stands as a lasting tribute to her vision and spirit.

Bibi Lenček is mourned by her children, Nikko and Katrina (husband William Markarian-Martin); 'adopted son' Garrett Gharibeh; her beloved and only sister, Lena; granddaughter, Bella; long-time partner and father to her children, Takashi Inagaki, and his wife, Carol Savvas; niece Bianca Lenček Bosker, and her husband Matthew Nguyen; grand-nephew, Zeno; and family and cousins, Gideon Bosker and Tanya Supina , Cathy Germain and Zung, Nguyen, Marina Lencek and Tadej Labernik, Laura Manzoni and Maurizio Concas; and her extraordinary and devoted aides Beata Pietrasik and Anna Marshall..

May she rest in peace and dwell in our hearts forever.

The family welcomes attendance at a forthcoming service in NYC in early August and, in lieu of flowers, suggests contributions to the ongoing project of publishing a comprehensive catalog of Bibi Lenček’s extraordinary artwork.

Details for the service and catalog participation will be posted here when available, or may be obtained from her son, Nikko, at [email protected]