Lili Wildenhain Collection

Frans Wildenhain (1905-1980)
Sea Shell Sculpture
Clay, ca. 1970
LFAC# 889

Elisabeth (Lili) Brockardt was a weaver and textile artist. She was born in Czechoslovakia in 1919 and studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna (1942-45) and the Academy der Kunste in Munich (1957-58). In 1970 she received an MFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. She directed several workshops for children in the Midwest and western New York state; served as a textile instructor at the Memorial Art Gallery and a part-time instructor at Nazareth College, both in Rochester, New York; and instructed summer sessions at the Naples Craft School and 1000 Islands Crafts School, also in New York. Her work was included in several exhibitions and gallery shows, including the Brussels World’s Fair in 1958 where she received the Etoile D’Or Award. Other prizes include a Huntington Hartford Foundation Grant, First Prize from the Church Architectural Guild of America, First prize from the Kansas Designer Craftsmen Show, and an Artist in Residence Grant from the State of New York, Lewiston. Collections that contain her work include the Bavarian Broadcasting Company (Munich, Germany); Carnegie Library , University of Kansas (Lawrence); Schoenberg Hall Theater, U.C.L.A. (Los Angeles); and several churches and synagoges in both Europe and the United States.

Lili had an intense interest in yoga, Zen and enjoyed hiking and the outdoors. She was married to Frans Wildenhain. Lili Wildenhain died in Rochester, NY, on January 9, 2004.

In 1991, Lili Wildenhain gave 21 of her late husband’s ceramic works to the Luther College Fine Arts Collection. She also helped in the selection of his watercolors and drawings that came to Luther as the Edith Huset Talle Collection.

Ref: Luther College Fine Arts Collection (file materials, including biographical information supplied by Lili Wildenhain), 2003.

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Updated 03/12/2004