John Nelson Battenberg (December 3, 1931 – July 8, 2012) was an American sculptor. Battenberg was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1931. An artist named John Goray first influenced him when Battenberg was about 10 years old. Battenberg did his undergraduate work in art at various Midwestern universities. He also attended the

Ruskin School The Ruskin School of Art is the Department of Fine Art at the University of Oxford, England. It is part of Oxford's Humanities Division. History The Ruskin School of Art grew out the Oxford School of Art, which was founded in 1865 and later ...

, Oxford University for two years. He received M.F.A.'s from

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

and

California School of Arts and Crafts The California College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996, it opened a second campus in S ...

. Battenberg has resided in both Italy and England. He was a professor of sculpture at

San José State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public research university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State Universit ...

and now holds the title of professor emeritus. He left his professorship to pursue his sculpture full-time. In 2007, Battenberg returned to painting for a number of reasons, one of which was a leg injury which eventually prevented him from sculpting. The

Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. It has one of the largest single co ...

, the

Krannert Art Museum The Krannert Art Museum (KAM) is a fine art museum located at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in Champaign, Illinois, United States. It has of space devoted to all periods of art, dating from ancient Egypt to contemporary photography ...

(University of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois), the National Museum of Wildlife Art (Jackson Hole, Wyoming), the

Oakland Museum of California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

(Oakland, California) the

San Diego Museum of Art The San Diego Museum of Art is a fine art museum in Balboa Park in San Diego, California, that houses a broad collection with particular strength in Spanish art. It opened as the Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego on February 28, 1926, and changed ...

, the

Seattle Art Museum The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, United States. The museum operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum in ...

(Seattle, Washington), the Syracuse University Art Collection (Syracuse, New York), the Triton Museum of Art (Santa Clara, California), and Phoenix University (Phoenix, Arizona) are among the public collections holding his work. In 2009 John began using a technique utilizing a series of layers of painted images sandwiched between an equal number of 1/8” layers of optically clear plastic resin; creating a three dimensionality. Battenberg successfully moved his Koi to Arizona from California in 2006; some of his exotic Koi subjects are over 30 years old. Battenberg's Koi are the subjects of his 3D paintings. John Battenberg lived his final years in Scottsdale, with his wife Lynn, two cats, an aviary of birds, and twenty-seven Koi fish contained in two outdoor ponds. He died on July 8, 2012, in Scottsdale.

References

* Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, "Separate Realities: California Representational Painting/Sculpture", Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, 1973. * Sarda, Michel F., "Faces of Arizona: A Tribute to Arizona Artists ", Phoenix, Bridgewood Press, 1998.

External links

John Battenberg

{{DEFAULTSORT:Battenberg, John Nelson 1931 births 2012 deaths Artists from Milwaukee Sculptors from Wisconsin San Jose State University faculty