Rosemarie Benedikt

Biography

Rosemarie Benedikt was born in 1939 in Baden near Vienna. She wanted to become a painter from an early age, but her parents were not supportive of her career aspirations. They compromised on a course in textile design at the Vienna Fashion School Hetzendorf. Benedikt learned to design fabric patterns and in this way pursued her passion for painting. After five years of studies, she was chosen from many applicants to design ornaments for the porcelain manufactory Rörstrand in Lidköping in southern Switzerland. This project proved to be a turning point in the artist’s life, as this was the first time the 20-year-old came across porcelain – a new material for her – and she was immediately fascinated. In this delicate medium, she recognized the perfect vessel for the implementation of her artistic ideas. Upon returning to Vienna five years later, Benedikt was the first artist specializing in porcelain, which was more expensive and demanding than the stoneware common at that time. She managed to obtain a position as an assistant lecturer for ceramic painting techniques at the Vienna University of Applied Arts, and after earning a degree rose to assistant professor. The artist has also been running her own studio since the 1970s and has presented her works at different exhibitions both in Austria and abroad. Her ceramics are highly sought after by collectors worldwide.

Glass as a working material has long been a source of fascination for Rosemarie Benedikt. In 1987 and 1988 the artist attended Pilchuck Glass School in Seattle, USA to learn the glassblowing technique. As a result of the experience gained through working with studio glass in the USA, she designed a collection of vases for glassware company Henn and in 2000/2001 for Lobmeyr. The year 2006 witnessed the beginning of a highly creative partnership between Rosemarie Benedikt and the art glass studio “Berengo Fine Arts” in Murano. Aside from the production of numerous porcelain figures and humoristic miniatures, the massive but at the same time fragile sculptures, set in glass according to Benedikt’s sketches, became an integral part of the gallery’s program, delighting ever more visitors and international collectors.