Netherlands 1916-1996
Glass artist Sybren Valkema is known for his blown glass sculptures, decorative vessels, windows and utilitarian objects. He studies at Kooningliijke Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten and at Gravenhage, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Art Education.
Valkema was an artist of firsts in the European glass world. A teacher and co-director of Amsterdam’s Gerrit Rietveld Academy from 1943 to 1981, in 1965 he was the first to construct a European glass furnace for art studios and in 1969 established the first hot glass studio in a European art school at the Rietveld Academy.
He was also a glass designer for Royal Leerdam from 1948 to 1967 and again in from 1971 to 1982. In the latter period he produced works for Leerdam’s “Unica” (“Unique”) line. Valkema was an instructor of Design and Aesthetics at the Leerdam Glass School from 1943 to 1953.
After 1981 Valkema was a guest artist at several glass studios, including Ann Wolff’s studio at Stenhytta, Transjö, Sweden; Essener Glasstudio in Essen, Germany; Atelier de Verre, Sars Poteries, France; Crystalex in Nový Bor, Czechoslovakia; Littleton Studios and Gary Beecham Studio in Spruce Pine, North Carolina and at Studio Wilke Adolfsson in Orrefors, Sweden. Valkema’s own studio was located in Blaricum, Netherlands.
Sybren Valkema’s works in glass can be seen in many public collections in Europe, including the Musée du Verre, Liège, Belgium; Museum Bellerive, Zurich, Switzerland; Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg, Germany; Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, Germany; Glasmuseum Frauenau, Germany; Glasmuseum Immenhausen, Germany; Glassmuseum Ebeltoft, Denmark, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France; Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England and in the Netherlands at the Nationaal Glasmuseum in Leerdam and the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen in Rotterdam.
In the United States Valkema’s glass has been collected by Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York; Elvehjem Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin; Penland School of Crafts, North Carolina and the Pilchuck Collection in Stanwood, Washington.
A retrospective, “The World According to Sybren Valkema,” was held at the National Glass Museum in Leerdam, Netherlands in 2005-05.
Posted on August 18, 2011
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