Sonja Landweer

Sonja Landweer (20 April 1933 – 15 December 2019) was a Dutch artist and ceramist, who lived and worked in Ireland, known for her bronze castings, unique patinations and subtle forms.[1][2]

Bowl with glaze decoration by Sonja Landweer, 1962.

Life and work

Landweer was born in Amsterdam, the eldest child of three to German artist and teacher, Erna Benter-Landweer and Dutch registrar of births and deaths, Pieter Landweer.[2] She studied ceramics at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in the early 1950s,[3] and started her own art studio in 1954.[4]

In 1962 she took part in exhibition of six young ceramists from Amsterdam in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, together with Hans de Jong, Jan de Rooden, Johan van Loon, Jan van der Vaart and Johnny Rolf, which signified the rebirth of artisan ceramics in the Netherlands.[5] In 1965 she was invited to move to Ireland to revitalise Irish craft and design as part of a group of international artists, where she met Barrie Cooke with whom she had one child called Aoine in 1966.[2] She was artist in residence at the Kilkenny Design Workshops and teacher. There she came into contact with Lance Clark of C. & J. Clark, and inspired him to develop his Desert Trek shoe design. In 1981 she jointed Aosdána and kept drawing, painting, print-making, making jewellery and pottery.

Landweer was awarded the Verzetsprijs in Holland in 1964; the prix artistique at the Biennale Internationale de Ceramique d’Art, Vallauris, France in 1974 and the 1992 honorary award from NCAD.[1]

Work in public collections

The work of Landweer is held in several public collections worldwide, a selection:[1]

References
  1. Peppercanister Gallery. "Sonja Landweer, biography," at peppercanister.com. Accessed 16.05.2015.
  2. "Sonja Landweer obituary: Visionary in craft and design in Ireland". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2020-01-20.
  3. Representing Art in Ireland, 2008. p. 273.
  4. Configura 1: Kunst in Europa : Erfurt '91, 1991. p. 129.
  5. Mienke Simon Thomas (2008). Goed in vorm: honderd jaar ontwerpen in Nederland. p. 188

Further reading
  • Danske Kunstindustrimuseum (København). Sonja Landweer: keramik, 1972.
  • Mieke G. Spruit-Ledeboer, Sonja Landweer. Transforming Clay: Sonja Landweer, 2009. * Nicola Gordon Brown, Susan Holland, Emma Lucy O'Brien. Life's Work: Sonja Landweer : a Retrospective Exhibition, 2011.
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