Karin Jonzen

Karin Margareta Jonzen
Born Karin Margareta Löwenadler
22 December 1914
London
Died 29 January 1998(1998-01-29) (aged 83)
Nationality British
Education
Known for Sculpture
Spouse(s)
  • Basil Jonzen (m. 1944 – divorced)
  • Ake Sucksdorff (m. 1972)

Karin Margareta Jonzen (née Löwenadler; 22 December 1914 – 29 January 1998) was a British figure sculptor whose works, in bronze, terracotta and stone, were commissioned by a number of public bodies in Britain and abroad.[1]

Biography

Karin Löwenadler was born in London to Swedish parents and attended the Slade School of Art from 1933 to 1936.[2] At the Slade she won prizes in both painting and sculpture and decided to abandon her original ambition to become a cartoonist and concentrate on sculpture.[3][4] Jonzen continued her studies at the Royal Academy Stockholm and at the City and Guilds Art School in Kennington during 1939.[2] That same year she won the Prix de Rome, but the beginning of World War II prevented her making use of the travelling scholarship it conferred.[3] During the war she worked as a Civil Defence ambulance driver until she developed rheumatic fever and was given a medical discharge.[5]

The Gardener (1971)

After the war Jonzen's figures and sculptures were bought by a number of important art collectors, including Robert Sainsbury and Kenneth Clark.[1] In 1948 she won the Royal Society of British Sculptors' Feodora Gleichen Award for women artists.[3][4] A number of high-profile public commissions followed. The Arts Council commissioned her to produce a sculpture for the newly built Southbank Centre and the World Health Organisation commissioned works from her for its centres in New Delhi and Geneva.[3] A number of statues by Jonzen are located in the City of London, including her 1972 group Beyond Tomorrow outside the Guildhall.[1] Her figurative skills were greatly suited to church sculpture and the College Chapel at Selwyn College in Cambridge, Guildford Cathedral and St Mary-le-Bow in London all have figures by Jonzen.[3] Subjects of her portrait busts include Paul Scofield, Max Von Sydow, Malcolm Muggeridge and Dame Ninette de Valois, as well as Sir Hugh Casson and Sir A. P. Herbert.[3][6] The National Portrait Gallery in London holds her bronze bust of Learie Constantine, while the Tate collection includes her 1947/1948 terracotta Head of a Youth.[7][8] Other works by Jonzen are also held by art galleries in Bradford, Glasgow, Brighton and Southend.[9]

Jonzen exhibited on a regular basis at the Royal Academy, with the London Group, the New English Art Club and at the Royal Society of British Artists.[2][9] She lectured, part-time, on art and art appreciation for the extra-mural department of London University from 1965 to 1970, and at the Camden Arts Centre between 1968 and 1972.[4] Solo exhibitions were held at the Fieldbourne Gallery in London in 1974 and at David Messum Fine Art in 1994.[3][1] Jonzen was married twice, firstly to Basil Jonzen, a well-regarded artist and art collector in his own right, whom she married in 1944 and with whom she ran a successful art gallery for a time. After they divorced she married a former boyfriend, a poet called Ake Sucksdorff.[5]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Bénézit Dictionary of Artists Volume 7 Herring–Koornstra. Editions Grund, Paris. 2006.
  2. 1 2 3 Grant M. Waters (1975). Dictionary of British Artists Working 1900–1950. Eastbourne Fine Art.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Alicia Foster (2004). Tate Women Artists. Tate Publishing. ISBN 1-85437-311-0.
  4. 1 2 3 University of Glasgow History of Art / HATII (2011). "Karin Margareta Jonzen (1914–1998)". Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain & Ireland 1851–1951. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  5. 1 2 Edward Lucie-Smith (2 February 1998). "Obituary: Karin Jonzen". The Independent. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  6. ↑ David Buckman (2006). Artists in Britain Since 1945 Vol 1, A to L. Art Dictionaries Ltd. ISBN 0 953260 95 X.
  7. ↑ "Karin Jonzen (1914–1998), Artist". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  8. ↑ "Karin Jonzen (1914–1998), Head of a Youth". Tate. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  9. 1 2 Frances Spalding (1990). 20th Century Painters and Sculptors. Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 1 85149 106 6.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.