Karin Jonzen

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]

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][5] 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.^[6] While recovering Jonzen became convinced that modernism and abstract sculpture was not the way to advance her art and decided to focus on figurative works.^[7]

After the war Jonzen's figures and sculptures were bought by some important art collectors, including Robert Sainsbury and Kenneth Clark, although otherwise commercial galleries showed little interest in her work.^[1][7] 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 Organization commissioned works from her for its centres in New Delhi and Geneva.^[3] A standing figure was commissioned for the Festival of Britain in 1951.^[8] Jonzen also participated in the Some Contemporary British Sculpture exhibition organised by the Arts Council in 1956.^[9]

Jonzen entered three pieces for the 1968 Sculpture in the City exhibition which was part of that year's City of London Festival.^[10] This led to her receiving two commissions from the Corporation of the City of London including her 1972 group Beyond Tomorrow outside the Guildhall.^[1] Jonzen was offered the commission on the basis of a small model and subsequently completed the full-size version but was in Sweden when the foundry casting was made. She was disappointed with the casting and had it re-cast, in bronze resin, at her own expense.^[10] This version greatly impressed Lord Blackford, a member of the Corporation, to the extant that he paid for a new bronze casting which is the version displayed outside the Guidhall.^[10] Jonzen's other commission from the Corporation was for The Gardener, a piece designed to celebrate the work of the Corporation's Trees, Gardens and Open Spaces Committee.^[10] The chair of that committee, Frederick Cleary, was also the Treasurer of the Samuel Pepys Club and in that role he commissioned Jonzen to produce a bust of Pepys for Seething Lane Garden.^[10]

Jonzen's figurative skills were greatly suited to church sculpture and both Guildford Cathedral and St Mary-le-Bow in London have figures by Jonzen, while the College Chapel at Selwyn College in Cambridge has her 1958 three-figure Ascension group.^[3][11] 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][12] 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.^[13][14] Other works by Jonzen are also held by art galleries in Bradford, Glasgow, Brighton, Southend and in Melbourne, Australia.^[15]

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][15] 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]

Academician, Gilbert Ledward, nominated Jonzen for membership of the Royal Academy of Arts on 21 April 1949, she was re-nominated in March 1957, however failing to attract sufficient voters her proposal lapsed seven years later in 1964 in accordance with the Royal Academy's regulations.^[16]

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 who she had first met in 1938.^[6][8]

Image	Title / subject	Location and coordinates	Date	Type	Designation	Notes
	Mother and Child	Sydenham Hill Estate, London	1961	Statue		A commission by the London County Council, situated outside a community centre, where a mother and baby clinic was held. In 1970 the work was reported stolen.[17][7]
More images	Learie Constantine, Baron Constantine	National Portrait Gallery, London	1971	Bronze bust		[18]
More images	The Gardener	London Wall, City of London 51°31′02″N 0°05′33″W / 51.5172°N 0.0925°W / 51.5172; -0.0925 (The Gardener)	1971–1972	Bronze statue		[10]
More images	Beyond Tomorrow	Guildhall Piazza, City Of London 51°30′58″N 0°05′31″W / 51.5161°N 0.0919°W / 51.5161; -0.0919 (Beyond Tomorrow)	1972	Bronze sculptural group		[10]
	Pieta	The Church of Sweden, London	1975	Bronze resin statue		[8]
	Young Girl	Sloane Gardens, London	1980	Bronze statue
	Samuel Pepys	Seething Lane Garden, London	1983	Bust on pedestal		[10]
	St. Tarcisius	Corpus Christi Roman Catholic Church, Maiden Lane, London		Statue
	St. Anne and Mary	St. Anne's Church, Lewes	1990	Statue
	Mother and Child	St Mary-le-Bow, City of London		Bronze statue
	Young Women Contemplating	The Church of Sweden, London		Half-figure

• Exhibition of Open Air Sculpture 1948;^[19]
• Tate Gallery 'The Four Seasons'; Tate Gallery
• 'Contemporary Religious Art'; City of London Festival 1968;
• Fieldborne Galleries 29 May to 19 June 1974 ^[20]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Karin Jonzen.

• 21 artworks by or after Karin Jonzen at the Art UK site